Why I hate Microsoft
"A personal, lengthy, but highly articulate outburst"
=>
http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS.html
This folks, is an awesomely long article of how much BS Microsoft throws
in your face without you realising it. And it explores why you shouldn't lay
down any more money on future MS products....
An entire history of dirty tricks:
* Sloppy coding and design principles
Which would make any engineer die of laughter...Security? Stability? Efficiency?
Answer : Nope, nope, and nope! Ever wonder why you need
more and more beefier hardware with each consecutive release?
How about this...To resolve your issues, reboot or reinstall.
(So much for finding out what actually caused the issue and how it can be
resolved, so that its not likely to happen again!)
* Innovation (NOT!)
MS way : As in you borrow anything and cobble it together. Look in
Computer Science Undergraduate garbage bins if you have to!...
OR just buy them out, its easier!
* PR/Marketing
As in just plain lies about the competition and the "vaporware tactic".
Plus the overuse of the word "innovation".
And of course...Keeping the customer ignorant.
The computer is a complex piece of hardware, they've made it simple...
They've also bolted down all the details...Everything is cool, until
something goes wrong! There's no need to learn any basics, just "point
and click". (A new generation of PC users who have no clue that they
are infected with god-knows-what, doing something to god-knows-who).
Computer crashes and you lose data, you live with it, complain, and
move on. (Has anyone questioned why this is acceptable?)
* Standards (web/Java/.Net/etc) : "The Microsoft way"
('Designed for Windows' = 'incompatible with anything else'.)
* The lawyers
("We're gonna sue your ass to submission")
Example of brute force approaches used on customers who use
"alternatives"...
We decided to use FreeBSD, Apache, mySQL+PostgreSQL, Perl+PHP
[as Open Source alternatives to Microsoft products]. The company I am
working with is a pure-Microsoft company, i.e. they only used to use
Microsoft software, and they even didn't know anything about Open
Source. [...]
When the local Microsoft rep "heard" about it (someone inside the
company tipped them off), they asked to meet my team(!) and discuss
the reasons for our Open Source use.
In fact, it was a meeting of 2 1/2 hours with 3 Microsoft sales/consulting
reps trying to persuade us not to use Open Source (mainly they talked
about Linux until we told them that we don't use Linux and that we don't
understand what they are talking about :-) because "it is inherently
insecure, unreliable" and, what was their biggest argument, "there is
nobody in this country who could give you any support for Open Source", etc.
Also, they wanted (actually they required!) us to tell them the reasons why
we are using Open Source instead of the already introduced and
long-time proven Microsoft Software in this company. I started explaining
[...] and when we came to the point of 'Licensing Costs', they offered us to
give the Windows server licences for free.
I am not kidding. When I told them that I'd need at least ten licenses and
at $400/each, too much for me to begin with, they offered to give us the
license for free - and not only for now, but also for the future when we
kept working on Microsoft.
* Security issues?
No problem...Its just a PR thing, we'll play it down.
* 'Next Generation Secure Computing Base'
Secure MS's interests and control what the user can and cannot do!
* Risky business partner
You wonder why Konami didn't get them to do MGS2 on PC!
* Misinformation.
Damn, the former Iraqi Mis-Information Minister should work for them!
(FUD about Netware in 1999, and Unix/Linux started to get the same
attention in 2001).
