MS has actually done a lot of good things for the computing world
To the contrary, the only thing MS can actually do
well is intimidate and blackmail smaller companies, break accepted standards, lie through advertising, release propaganda designed to slander (in particular, targeted at Linux), and just generally cause trouble.
If anyone is in doubt whether Microsoft is a good company or not, I engourage them to read this
document. It's very long, so skip through it if you wish and read parts that catch your eye.
The products they make are inconsistent, based entirely on appearance, and lack innovation and proper thought. Meanwhile, they have employed every dirty trick in the book, and several that were too dirty for the book, to become a monopoly (although it was pretty much started by Gates being in the right place at the right time with a shitty piece of software (i.e. MS-DOS, which incedentally he didn't write)). They use the same shifty business and marketing practices today to hold their monopoly.
At present, they're in the process of rolling out some pretty agressive new policies that will further lock people into using their sub-standard software, and further exploit their user-base. These include clauses in the EULA that basically give them free run of your computer. For the skeptical, this is already in motion -- a recent Media Player update included code that searched for pirated music. It included the ability to delete pirated content, but I can't remember the details. Google will fill you in
But the company aside, what I hate about the products MS sell is that when you're using them, you're not in control of your computer. You can't do things the way
you want to, you can only do them the way Microsoft sees fit to allow you to. It's a creaky, brittle, unstable mound of dirty, hacked-together code, and although it often works OK if you're careful with it, as soon as you put any serious demands on it, it goes out the window.
Apart from anything else, the fact that as you use it week-to-week it gets slower and less predictable says a lot about the quality of the code. To demonstrate: I have a Linux installation that I've moved through 3 computers and about 4 hard disks. It's getting onto 2 years old, and since I first installed it it's had a lot of updates to the core software, drivers, kernel, you name it. This sort of thing would reduce any version of Windows to a gibbering, unbootable mess, but this Linux install is still kicking along perfectly (in fact, it's only ever crashed twice, and it was my fault both times).
So yeah. MS sucks.
Originally posted by Charlie Brown
Personally Microsoft rules...Linux doesnt even come close.
You obviously haven't taken the time to learn much about Linux. Just because
you couldn't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't a superior platform.
In technical terms, there is no argument. Linux simply is a superior platform. The
only advantage MS has is a larger range of games, and a lot of useless novelty software, despite Linux being a superior gaming platform. 97% of people use Windows, so pretty much noone writes commercial desktop software for anything else. Hardware support is better under Linux, except for some uncommon peripherals.
Originally posted by Charlie Brown
I work with a tech head (not all) and they can be freaky they are just not normal people, very intovert, paranoid, nit picky and me against the world attitude...so when everyone picks microsoft of course you have this tech nerd you thinks yeah Linux rules cos nobody knows how to use it.
That is a really ignorant thing to say. 'they are just not normal people'? How judgemental of you. Just because someone is introverted, doesn't make them of less value than you, and just because some introverts find normal superficial social situations exasperating and uncomfortable, doesn't either.
If you took the time to learn a little about such a person, you'd probably find that they're a very interesting, friendly and complex person, with a lot of talents. In future I think you should cut others more slack, just because they don't go through all the right social motions like you do.
cmon dude you gotta admit they put out some solid products.