MSFT uses a bottom-up design process (and it can induce some paranoia :-)

[Aron Insinga <ainsinga@infomation.com>]

This explains the tower of features that bloats Microsoft products.
(It isn't necessarily a plot to make you buy bigger disks and faster CPUs.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/02/002fallows.htm
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/02/002fallows2.htm

>If there is something you love
>or hate about Microsoft programs, don't thank or blame Bill
>Gates; some specific member of the Microsoft team decided to
>"own" that feature and include it in a program. There is even a
>person who created the "It looks like you're writing a letter"
>auto-annoyance feature in Word. I had to sign a separate
>confidentiality clause promising not to name him.

(This reminds me of when I moved to Marlborough (MA) and,
in the nearby laundromat one day, I happened to meet the person
who designed the remote diagnosis front panel for the PDP-11/70.
[I think it was an 8008 or 8080 with 2 serial ports, the CTY and
a modem, so that front panel functions could be done by typing
either on the CTY or from a human or a computer in Colorado.]
When I commented on the loss of the lights and switches when
field service switched front panels on us at school, he got defensive
and apologetic.  I guess he'd gotten a lot of heat over that, but it was
what had to be done to deal with the number of machines growing
faster than field service could train new people.)
(Oh, CTY=Console TTY, for those who haven't used a PDP-10.)

- Aron