Grrr!!! Preview, Preview…
Dooku puts on his MS T-Shirt, etc
Hey, I have no problem if you think Win XP is great, but Office XP has given me more headaches than any goddamn OFFICE SUITE ever should. I guess this should be another thread, but I’ll be damned if I haven’t wasted 24+ hours of my life on the phone trying to fix that shitty software. (I basically run the “IT department”, if you want to call it that, of a company with under 10 employees. And I’m not payed… so don’t tell me I’d lose my “job” if MS was more competent. Oh, and I’m pretty knowledgable about computers as well.)
- Rob
Çyrin, dude, grab a kleenex. You still have a little on your chin.
Not to be ominous or anything, but I got a This page cannot be displayed the first time I tried to load this thread.
Carry on.
You wouldnt by chance be using XP would you matt_mcl? 
I just finished a two-day reinstall of Win98 on my machine. The OS was crumbling, it was crashing daily, my office package was completely dead and causing memory access violations before they even got on the screen… ugh. So much junk I downloaded from the net and installed, then uninstalled, Ctrl+Alt+Del way too often…
Only to find that I didn’t have my fucking modem driver. There’s another $40 down the drain.
Microsoft’s fault? Almost 0%, IMO. Maybe some for the infamous “Windows Rot” but I dunno.
I can’t wait until they pick an operating system and stick with it already, sheesh. Multiple NTs, 95s, 98s, an ME, a 2K, and now an XP? In six fucking years? I can appreciate technology changing, but christ. Imagine if I had payed for any of those 
Fucking A.
I am sticking to 98 until no one writes software for it anymore, which is probably unlikely for some time. I hope they stick with XP for at least more than two fucking years.
Total pain in the ass. Microsoft’s fault? almost 100%.
So yeah, fuck Microsoft. but I still like the OS. Maybe when I get DSL I’ll download Red Hat and give that a try, but who knows.
I’ll put this op to bed.
I went out and bought a nearly identical machine, only running Windows ME. Every single application that crapped out in XP loaded without incident, clean, no blue screen of death, and has run correctly ever since. Even Black & White, a game I consider to be one of the ultimate tests of a machine, runs beautifully and stably under Windows ME. I rest my case.
To those who insist all of my problems with XP could have been easily fixed - perhaps you missed my point. Problems such as I encountered should be nonexistent on a brand new machine, period. And those of you who mindlessly tout Microsoft products simply because you’ve had no problems should perhaps get your heads out of your asses.
I find it ironic that ME is not giving you problems where as XP did as ME is regarded by many people to be the most bug filled OS MS released since the original Win95, and XP by far the most stable.
But hey, whatever floats your boat.
For all those talking about how nice Microsoft is to people, take a look at a blurb they put into the user agreement of FrontPage 2002-
Are you sure you’re talking nice about Microsoft because you want to? Or are you doing it to keep your computer from blowing up?
Oh for crying out loud Cnote!!!
Did that really contribute anything?
Seriously ?
Taking pot shots at Uncle Bill is uncalled for [sub] …help me…[/sub] and doesn’t give the man who has brought about a revolution to the way we work and play
his fair due [sub]…if i stop I crash…please help…[/sub].I think no small part of jealousy contributed to your snide little comment and I for one don’t welcome it.
Microsoft! C’mon Y’all ! Microsoft ! Boo yah ! Ohhh Yeah !!
Microsoft! C’mon Y’all ! Microsoft ! Boo yah ! Ohhh Yeah !!
Microsoft! C’mon Y’all ! Microsoft ! Boo yah ! Ohhh Yeah !!
[sub]Microsoft! C’mon Y’all ! Microsoft ! Boo ya ! Ohhh Yeah !![/sub]
[sub]Microsoft! C’mon Y’all ! Microsoft ! Boo ya ! Ohhh Yeah !![/sub]
Well, you know, being an employee at my local Best Buy, I can tell you we haven’t a SINGLE customer come in an complain about Windows XP and compatibility/software issues.
Having run Windows XP since the open beta started, I’ve played games from Black & White to Homeworld to Half-Life to Warcraft 2…all of them have worked.
I’m more inclined to believe tha either A) Compaq provided you with incompatible software versions for WinXP (such as the printer driver), or B) You did something incorrectly, but I don’t think this one is even possible with XP.
As a Tech Support dweeb, I’d like to elaborate on Monster 104’s comments. I cannot speak on behalf of Windows XP, or its reliability, but from the problems you describe it sounds more and more like Compaq was at fault. It’s even possible (and I would guess ‘likely’, although it’s only a guess) that there might have been something wrong with that particular machine.
A shipment of computers which came through my office recently all were plagued with a bad batch of memory sticks. We’d never have figured it out, either, if the dealer hadn’t contacted us with an unoffical recall (they found out through testing, and were planning to recall their own stock and throw it back at their wholesaler). The errors were not consistent, or even logical. Bad memory can cause all sorts of problems.
Still, hardware defects aside, Compaq is a close partner with Microsoft, and any hardware they produce and sell with Windows XP should not only be compatible, but there is no reason proper drivers wouldn’t be present in Compaq’s own OEM distribution of XP. Anything not available at the time of their OEM minting, should have been on a suplimental CD.
Microsoft has been pushing a perception that everyone these days is on the internet. They need this perception to bolster their .Net concepts, and further integrate their products with the Internet. They’d not even acknowledge Nickrz complaints because they feel he should be on the internet, downloading updates to their software, registering their software, and eventually paying for more of their software without going through someone like Best Buy first.
It’s difficult for individual users to resist this mindset Microsoft is pushing, but several world governments are begining to wake up to Microsoft’s predatory nature which is giving more and more companies courage to stand up against them. Meanwhile, I feel Compaq should have ultimately been responsible for ensuring their systems were compatible and fully functional out of the box. Any additional software or hardware Nickrz wishes to buy later is another matter.
inkblot, the fairly quiet
Just so you know, Damhna, I eventually decided to put that tidbit in here only after I saw that Nickrz had decided to wrap this post up (Two posts above my original post). On top of that, I added it because different people were kidding around with other people about OS’s and whatnot… even including MS Office suite. So I didn’t think it was out of line.
Truth be told, I thought your post was funny. But it also had an edge to it that says, “Hey now Chris!! Whatcha doing saying that?”.
I’d be more than willing to start a thread on that aspect (The FrontPage EULA), but at the time I didn’t think it warranted its own full on bitch-o-rama.
Give me the green light and I’ll let 'er rip!!
This is the time when you should incant the magic spell, “Implied Warranty of Merchantibility.” You have a right to a full refund under the Uniform Commercial Code.
http://www.smartagreements.com/bltopics/Bltopi18.html
Get your refund. Then go buy a Mac.
Yeah. Good idea. He’ll sure have a lot of fun playing Black & White and The Sims on his Mac.
I’m sure he will, because I sure am enjoying the games, in fact The Sims even runs native in MacOS X. B&W is being ported by Feral Interactive and will ship soon.
I think I have to decide something now.
Either my attempts at humour are too intellectually abstract for the general public
or
I’m just not really as funny as I like to think.
Well you cant blame a guy for trying.
FTR I’m inclined to agree with you that the FP disclaimer is way off base.
“Hey there MS salesman , I need some software that will allow me to create websites”
“Here you go Kid…$300”
“Ohhh Nice. $300 ? Okay Here you go . Thanks”
“Alrighty then”
To me the transaction ends right there. I brought it , I own it , I can do whatever the fuck I like with it that doesnt break any laws.
I do not agree that MS have the right to dictate how I use
the product , I do not agree that I invalidate any statutory rights , warranty or whatever by creating a
site called MSSucks. I have the right to say whatever I like. MS sells me a website creation tool , their input ends there.
Does the disclamer say anything about me not creating a website with instructions on how to dump Cholera into a water resevoir ?
Does it say I may not use it to make disparaging remarks about Linux ?
Does it say I can’t create a website that e.g. contains critical movie reviews or compares Compaq with HP in a less than favourable light ?
I’d be surprised if it did.
Will MS be liable if I do create a terrorist handbook with their product?
Can Compaq sue MS for giving me the tools allowing me to create a site which slams their product?
Will Paramount refuse to use MS products until such time as I am legally bound to remove a negative review.
No.
So step back MS , you cannot tell me how to use something I rightfully own.
When MS finally get around to setting up a police state with Chairman Bill and Secret Police Chief Balmer in power ,
then they can threaten and dictate what I may or may not do…but until then I will blythly ignore that particular “helpful serving suggestion” if nobody minds.
Of course as soon as I posted that two great big blue hands appeared from the monitor and bitchslapped me back and forth a few times.
I was tied me up with the mouse cable and spanked me with the keyboard whilst a lisping voice from the speakers merrily chirped all the while :
“You naaughty boy. After all Bill did for you. Naughty naughty naughty”
I was only saved by a BSOD and now the damn thing wont turn on at all. I’ve had to resort to carrier pigeon to get this post out.
Hmmmmmm! Might be something in that “not as funny as I like to think” theory after all.
Not calling into question the validity of the cite, but does anyone out there have a copy of FrontPage 2002 and does the disclaimer still say this?
Certainly Microsoft tries to float a lot of stuff past the consumer, but they often back off real quick when something doesn’t fly very well.
hmmm
I do have Office 2002 at home. I’m presuming that since it contains FP that it will have the same disclaimer. I’ll go through it (because thats the interesting kinda life I lead) and will post findings tommorow.
I am wondering about the actual legality of my earlier purchasing scenario. AFAIK MS may well have the right to say that they will only sell me a product on the condition that I use it only for purposes C through Y. I don’t have to like it though and I don’t intend to abide by it.
I think we might warrant that new thread right about now Cnote