Whether you’re Jeremy’s Evil Twin with his “Fuck you, Microsoft lovers!” shtick (like this thread), or whether you’re Handy and his unsupported claims (as evidenced in this thread), or whether you’re Drewbert and his “Holy hell, Steve Ballmer’s at a Pep Rally! Horrors!” bullshit (seen in this thread), or whether you’re Chas.E in… well… ANY thread, it’s all the same… for some reason, a lot of people hate Microsoft, and I bet very few of them even know why.
So here’s your chance. Tell me (and the rest of the world) why you hate Microsoft. Preferably without relying on the word “assimilate” or other Borg comparisons.
They have created the impression that it’s normal for computers to crash or hang.
They work on the principle that everything must belong to them eg. embrace and extend
They are immoral - Windows giving out errors when DRDOS was used to imply to the user that DRDOS is unstable
The security issues in their product.
The assumption that if you you a PC without an operating system you are a pirate.
Microsoft tax on new PCs even if you don’t want to use Windows
Clippy the Paper Clip
Excel changing CNA to Can everytime I type it in!!!
The user-unfriendliness of their products. For newbies maybe the system is easy to use but as soon as I want to do something slightly more complicated I can’t.
The reboots needed when installing products.
The announcement of vapourware to stop a competitor from selling a product.
The tactics of the BSA when it comes to piracy.
and this is just a beginning
Embrace and extend. The take perfectly good protocols with agreed upon standardss, implement them and then add their own little twist to them so that other companies programs that implement the standard do not function, or at least appear not to funtion well. Key example Sun’s java. It now to the point that pages written with the help of microsoft porgrams for microsoft browsers cannot be used by non microsoft browsers. This protocol was supposed to be cross platform adn they violated agreements to make it less so. Also Keroberos security as implemented by windows 2000. The use undefined fields in Keroberos standard to try to ensure that you cannot use it to authenticate non-windows 2000 hosts.
License Hypocrisy
They have been calling open source “open sores.” With one mouth they call GPL a virus that will infect any code it touches and with another they say that the GPL and other open source licenses are unenforceable. It is strongly believed that they have done this not because they have violated various Open source. It is strongly suspected that they have lifted the TCP stack for windows XP straight from one of the BSD’s. I would find this less odious if were not so zealous and nasty when persuing their own license enforcing, even to the extent of preventing charities from giving computers with windows to poor children. They could have made the charity acknowlege them and look like heroes, but know, they stopped the charity from distributing computers with windows. Ironically due to the uncompetetive agreements and upgrade policies it is likely that the computers did originally have a windows license, just that no one founnd it or bothered to give it over to charity along with the computer.
I think you’re getting the picture… don’t just say “I hate them for such and such reasons”… provide some BACKGROUND, some DATA. Don’t just go with the peeved du jour and expect me to cheer huzzahs for you. See Lee’s post for an example of this.
Lee…
Interesting examples, but does this really justify the vehement anti-Microsoft comments that I referenced in the OP? See, I’m not saying “Tell me why you think Microsoft makes inferior products”, I’m asking why people HATE Microsoft with such venom and disgust.
I strenuously urge SDMB readers not to participate in this thread. It will only end up in an mindless, endless cycle of “oh yeah, prove it” and “how so” that will be all too familiar to anyone who has seen OP’er in action.
The general public seems to accept that your Microsoft product will hang occasionally ( or maybe even frequently ) which will require a reboot to recover. This should not be the case and is not with many other operating systems. If my car stopped worked and would only restart after I rebooted it I would be understandably upset. Why do people just accept this when it happens with Windows?
How so?
Off the top of my head I can think of the recent example when MS added a field to the kerberos protocol so that a UNIX platform would not be able to interact properly with the Windows platforms. Also extending Java so that this cross-platform language will only work on a MS platform.
How so?
according to http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/8006.html “Microsoft has been caught numerous times specifically writing bugs or warnings when running competing software. They coded some versions of MS-DOS to not work well with Lotus 1-2-3. Windows 3.x had crippling code directed at DRDOS.”
Immoral - I believe these words were used by the judge in the ongoing DOJ vs MS case.
Forgive my haphazard quoting but this my first post where I had to use quoting and I haven’t got round to finding out how to use it correctly yet.
With the exception of Excel, which I always sort of liked, they have made a lot of mediocre-to-horrid software. Then they made their mediocre software ubiquitous, making it the standard.
I am not at the moment prepared to defend it with cites and details, but I believe the processes by which they have made their mediocre software ubiquitous have includes some rather questionable business practices. At best, they have done things I regard as unfair to competition. And at any rate their software hasn’t become the Standard as a result of its high quality.
That much irks me.
Hate comes into play when nice software packages disappear or start taking on Microsoft characteristics (especially interface) that I hate just because everyone expects those characteristics and is used to them. And of course my operating system of choice has existed in the shadow of that threat for a long time, and the fear that it would disappear causes hate for Microsoft as well.
Spoofe:
I regularly use Windows and other Microsoft products at work. I also regularly use Linux at home. Being a user of two seperate operating systems, I am in a position to have an opinion about the performance of Microsoft products.
First:
In all honesty, Linux and Free Software products don’t always do everything I want to do on my computer.
Second:
Microsoft programs will almost always have a way to do what I want to do.
Third:
The Microsoft product that claims to do what I want to do, more often than not fucks up when I try it.
Fourth:
I would rather get along without something than try to use a broken version of it.
This is one of the many reasons I hate Microsoft products: Their software tries to do too much and fails. I would be much more happy with an operating system that doesn’t crash at random intervals than with one that has some spiffy new feature.
Imagine that you have a car that has a super stereo system, mag wheels, spoiler, is painted just the shade you have always dreamed of, has seats that automatically adjust to the driver and passengers, has an airconditioner/heater combination that automatically keeps that cabin at a comfortable temperature, has a talking GPS system that directs you where you want to go, has a built in TV to entertain the passengers, has internet access over a cell phone for the passengers, etc, etc. This is comparable to a Windows PC with the typical pre-installed software package. You also have an old VW Beetle with 200,000 miles on it, no AC, GPS, etc, etc. This might be compared to the Linux PC.
Which car would you drive? Well, I forgot to mention that the “Windows” car also has some of the less desirable traits of Microsoft software. Sometimes, when you start the car, the motor blows up. Occasionally, out of the blue, the steering wheel locks when you are driving. The AC keeps you comfortable most of the time, but on the hottest day of the entire summer it turns on the heater because the cabin temperature goes over 100 degrees, and the digital thermostat only reports the last two digits - thus the controller thinks it is three degrees in the car and tries to warm you up. The “Linux” car has the usual traits of a Linux PC - gives no trouble, runs when you need it. Sure, if it gets hot outside you have to roll down the window to cool off, or turn on the heater by hand when it gets cold. It doesn’t have GPS, so you have to know where you are going.
Again, which car are you going to drive? I would drive the “Linux” car by preference. It isn’t as fancy, but it doesn’t leave me standing in traffic, either.
I’ll take dependability over fancy any day.
Why do I HATE Microsoft? Because dealing with all of the bugs and crap drives me up the wall, and I know it doesn’t have to be that way.
Being forced (I have no choice at work) to use “inferior products” pisses me off. And yes, Microsoft is to blame that I have to use their products at work. Their sales policies, their proprietary file formats, and their incompatible “standards” implementations make it necessary for me to use their products in order to exchange data with other people (our customers.)
And for the zealots there’s a handy, free e-mail option: your-name@FuckMicrosoft.com - although that link doesn’t seem to be working this morning. Funny that.
I find that their products are rushed to market, early releases are full of bugs and missing important functionality, and they charge for fixes and patches by calling them new versions (specifically, Win’98: Simply a 3000-item patch to Win’95 SR2. If you downloaded all Win’95 patches, you essentially had Win’98). They modify “standards” to make the M$ implementation incompatable with the rest of the industry, they’re the masters of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt: See the infamous Halloween Papers), they’ve specifically engaged PC vendors as “piracy narcs” by offering bounties to vendor personell who disclose to M$ sales of ‘naked’ computers, even if the buyer is a M$ Select customer, essentially requiring Select costomers to buy the M$ OS twice… The list goes on and on, but still I don’t hate M$.
Because they operate the way they do, my daughter will go to college.
M$: It’s not just a grasping behemoth, it’s job security.
There are dozens of reasons to hate Microsoft, but I don’t think it’s worth posting a 5 page diatribe, nor do I want to get tagged with a ‘how so?’. That being the case, I’ll just give one example from my personal experience. Last time I was computer shopping, I had narrowed it down to Dell and Gateway. Sure there are cheaper computers, but I wanted an easy transaction and nameplate I was confident would stand behind the product. But that is neither here not there.
Both computers came bundled with a Microsoft office suite. In quizzing the salespeople, and playing around with bundling different Microsoft options and noting the price changes, it became apparent that the cost is very much built in and these are not freebies. I already have a Microsoft office suite, but it doesn’t take a genius to guess the end of this story. A representative from each company, after realizing they may loose the business, confided in me that they were not free to un-bundle the software due to an agreement with Microsoft. The Gateway rep went so far as to explain that Microsoft will threaten to withhold the windows OS if they find that every computer sold doesn’t have one of their office suites pre-installed. Sure, Dell and Gateway choose to make a deal with the devil, but Microsoft is the devil. Hey, Microsoft, I already bought your fucking office suite! Who are you to dictate that I need to buy it again?
Would you mind swearing out an affidavit to that effect (preferably setting out the name of the Gateway rep who made that statement) and sending a copy of said affidavit to the antitrust divisions of your state Attorney General and to the United States Department of Justice? As of yet, the allegation stated above has not been proven in court, and would (if proven) be extremely damaging to Microsoft in the ongoing litigation since it evidences unlawful tying.
I can’t be sure if you are really interested, Kelly, or you are alleging that I’ve stretched the truth. If the former, please ignore response A and proceed directly to response B. If the latter, then response A is for you.
Response A
Sorry Kelly, but I have too much of a life to play Hawaii Five-Oh and document the sales person’s name (though I’m sure I called her by name at the time), nor did I make a transcript of the exact wording of her explanation. Still, I think I’m just intelligent enough to get the gist of her explanation and remember it. Maybe I should have worn a wire?
Response B
Seriously, I was under the impression that this particular business practice was well known, and had long ago been established. I didn’t go in with the intention of documenting illegal activity, so I didn’t capture the details that would have made my affidavit really useful.
When I copy a couple of pages from document A and paste them into document B, I’d rather NOT spend the next hour bolding the stuff that’s supposed to be bold, unbolding the stuff that’s supposed to be unbolded, and re-blue-ing the stuff that’s supposed to be blue.
When I hit the delete key, it’d be nice if the ENTIRE FUCKING PARAGRAPH ABOVE didn’t revert to Times New Roman (never mind unbolding and un-blue-ing). I need it in Arial. My bosses want it in Arial. DON’T MAKE MY LIFE THAT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT BY REVERTING TO TIMES NEW ROMAN!!!
When I hit ctrl+page down, that means I want to go to the next page. I’m so sorry that using the Find and Replace functions confuse Word’s tiny little brain, but for the love of god, when I hit ‘cancel’ on the Find window I mean CANCEL. GO AWAY!!! Stop finding for me!! I want to go to the top of the next page!! I don’t want to search anymore!!!
So, yeah. That’s why I hate Microsoft. I figured after my company upgraded to Office 2000 those bugs would be fixed, but noooooOOOOOOOOooooo. Same shit.
I’m not sure “hate” is the right word, but I find some of their products mediocre and their business ethics questionable.
a. (mediocrity) Microsoft Word is by far the most widely used text editor. Embedding diagrams and pictures in documents is a highly desirable feature. One would think that a WYSIWIG editor like Word would make this trivial. If these weren’t the case, one would assume that vast hordes of researchers at Microsoft would be engaged in making the feature actually work. Think again. Regardless of the settings on the various anchors and the formatting boxes, diagrams routinely fly all over the document. Occasionally they disappear entirely. Attempting to assign a caption to a diagram is just an exercise in futility. As a result, any tutorial or manual I’ve ever tried to construct using Word has looked like crap. Similar documents constructed using formatting languages like LaTex ended up looking professional. I can only imagine the complete agony of someone trying to format a thesis in Word.
b. (unethical behavior) An example of embrace and extinguish. Several years ago, when promoting Active-X as a standard, Microsoft promised to support Active-X on both Macs and Unix machines. I was engaged in attempting to define a cross-platform solution for a web-based educational product. The company had chosen to use Active-X because it was supposedly cross-platform. But quietly, and without any fanfare whatsoever, Microsoft eliminated support for Active-X on other platforms, resulting in web-based platforms that only worked on Windows machines. At best, a violation of trust. At worst, if done deliberately, an unethical torpedoing of other competing standards.
