NationStates Jolt Archive

My childhood was spent in the 90's...can someone tell me why Microsoft gets flamed by a lot of people?

Just curious.

Its just funny how Apple, Microsoft, and Linux duke it out, :)

Because they're a ruthless megacorporation, and the crappy products they make are used in 95% of the computers in the world?

Crappy products, much too expensive, monolopy... enough? They're like the cancer of the computer world.

Windows Millenium Edition.

I must now go cleanse myself with purifying incense and wards against evil.

windows 95

Why are so many people using Windows if its a crappy piece of software? Again...curiosity got the best of me, lol.

Why are so many people using Windows if its a crappy piece of software? Again...curiosity got the best of me, lol.

Because they used lawsuits and predatory marketing to ensure that they established a monopoly.

Becuase of Windows 3.1

It caught on really well, becuase it had a GUI.

Ever since then all the new software is usually only available for windows users.

Windows Millenium Edition.

I must now go cleanse myself with purifying incense and wards against evil.

So it isn't just me...Windows ME really IS the Spawn of Electronic Satan. It's hard to troubleshoot for, eats system resources, and frankly isn't too well-designed, from what I understand. Of course, it was based off Windows 95 and 98, so what does it say when you have a poorly put-together version of Windows 95/98? It shows you that it's time to upgrade to Windows 2000/XP sooner rather than later.

So many people use the bloatware known as "windows" for several reasons;
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- It comes pre-installed on most PCs
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- In terms of up-front cost, it's cheaper than other commercial operating systems
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- They've committed some heinous crime against god and are being punished.
- Did I mention that, apparently, "Everyone is using it"?

I must now go and remove the uncleanliness from my keyboard, screen, and hands.

Why are so many people using Windows if its a crappy piece of software? Again...curiosity got the best of me, lol.

Software monopoly. I converted from my Mac in 2002. I needed my games, and apple couldn't deliver. PC games are made for PCs. Some are made for mac or linux, but very few make it onto those platforms. Plus, they come out months later. My offer to apple still stands: I will go back to mac the second they offer the software selection PCs do.

So it isn't just me...Windows ME really IS the Spawn of Electronic Satan. It's hard to troubleshoot for, eats system resources, and frankly isn't too well-designed, from what I understand. Of course, it was based off Windows 95 and 98, so what does it say when you have a poorly put-together version of Windows 95/98? It shows you that it's time to upgrade to Windows 2000/XP sooner rather than later.

When I was in school for becoming a computer tech, we would repair systems for customers.
I personally have had more problems with ME, than any other Microsoft product.

Its poorly programmed, and easily corruptable.
Its a piece of shit that never should have been released.

Microsoft began collecting for it's abysmal image sometime after Windows 3.11, I think. That was when the operating system they threw out each year or two was more and more a shell. Less working than the predecessor, requiring again more system resources for gimicks that literally nobody needs and charging exorbitant prices. Videos of their vize CEO dancing like mad on the stage thanks due to yet another billions of profitmaking, give this corporation the image of the imperialist among the corporations. And while Microsoft is not omnipresent due to government regulations, their aggressive marketing tactics always aim for one goal - to have computer world dominance.

When I was in school for becoming a computer tech, we would repair systems for customers.
I personally have had more problems with ME, than any other Microsoft product.

Its poorly programmed, and easily corruptable.
Its a piece of shit that never should have been released.

I troubleshoot DSL and the most difficulty I have with customers is with Windows ME. WIndows 98 is a close second, but I have all kinds of trouble with ME.

As for it "never should have been released," you're right. Microsoft wasn't even going to release it except for the fact that Windows 98ers didn't want to have to recode their games for Windows 2000. So after they whined to Microsoft, they threw together Windows ME with a lot less time to prepare it. Microsoft knew they were done with the Windows 95 model of OS, and they redesigned their NT OS to make it a little more civilian-friendly. That's why XP is so usable.

I troubleshoot DSL and the most difficulty I have with customers is with Windows ME. WIndows 98 is a close second, but I have all kinds of trouble with ME.

As for it "never should have been released," you're right. Microsoft wasn't even going to release it except for the fact that Windows 98ers didn't want to have to recode their games for Windows 2000. So after they whined to Microsoft, they threw together Windows ME with a lot less time to prepare it. Microsoft knew they were done with the Windows 95 model of OS, and they redesigned their NT OS to make it a little more civilian-friendly. That's why XP is so usable.


We also had many many problems with XP.

I (currently) use 98se, and have hardly any problems at all.
But Im building a new system, and will put xp on it.

I just cant wait (insert sarcasm) for the next windows version....Im sure it will be great.

I actually miss Windows 98. I'm running XP now, and I can't tell you how many times I've cussed it out because it hides all its networking abilities behind stupid end-user interface wizards. Networking my computer would be so much easier if I could still get into the guts of the system.

Dam right, Win98 forever! Piss-off, you evil bastards that made Doom3, the more basic a system is, the easier it should be to code for!

Why are so many people using Windows if its a crappy piece of software? Again...curiosity got the best of me, lol.

It's simple. Apple didn't license its software so that dozens of manufacturers could make computers based off of it. I guess the competition between those companies made them cheaper, but far less effective since so many companies had to work together to make a single product.

Apple is my choice since it's there in all the manufacturing. There aren't any compatibility issues or sound card specifications. It just works.

I hear you can get Tetris and Solitaire for Apple now...:p

Windows XP from the people who brought you edlin...

There's one for the older geeks out there.

People hate Microsoft because they're a typical company. They exist for profits. It just so happens that Microsoft is a highly successful company in a very important market sector. People hate success, so people hate Microsoft. EA is one of, if not the, largest gaming publishers there is at the moment. People hate EA. They have produced a few good games, but people hate them all the same.

I'm fairly confident I'll get flamed for saying this, and people will immediately deny that it's even possible, but I don't care: if Apple was the monopoly in place of Microsoft, people would hate Apple just as much regardless of the stability of their systems or the features (or lack thereof) they have.

I hear you can get Tetris and Solitaire for Apple now...:p

Since MacOS X is based on Unix (I refuse to call it a Unix), you can surely play BSD-games. 'adventure' is one of the best games ever released.

So many people use the bloatware known as "windows" for several reasons;
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- It comes pre-installed on most PCs
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- In terms of up-front cost, it's cheaper than other commercial operating systems
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- They've committed some heinous crime against god and are being punished.
- Did I mention that, apparently, "Everyone is using it"?

if everyone is using it, why do I have to work so hard making my company's software work for Mac products? why do I keep getting told that a large number of our customers use mac?

my guess is you were being sarcastic, but it's hard to tell in text.

it does come preinstalled on most pcs, yes, but so do many other things that people do not need to use.

Mac comes preinstalled with Mac Mail, which, according to all the mac fanatics I know, is a piece of crap that shouldn't be used. they use something they think is better (I won't say what, because it's produced by microsoft, and everyone knows they only make crap software. only it's not true that they only make crap software.)

yes, winME was a disaster. However, I was able to successfully run a stable win98SE system for 18 months without issues. I have run 2000 and XP without any issues that weren't hardware related (dodgy hard drives, cheap modem cards, that sort of thing.)

I have also used Linux, FreeBSD, and MacOS9. I work on FreeBSD and WindowsXP.

MacOS9 gave me more hassles than win98, 2000 or XP. OSX is much better, but I don't know it that well yet (a couple of people here work on Mac running OSX.)

Linux has given me the most hassles of any system, both in terms of setting up and in terms of continued running. Admittedly, Fedora does seem to be an improvement on Red Hat 9, which was a definite improvement on Red Hat 5 ( the previous red hat system I used, which was, imo, terrible, and put me off linux for a long while, until SUSE version 7 or 8 brought me back.)

FreeBSD has probably given the least useability problems (it has some serious issues for coding on it.) However, none of the kind of software I use is even available for Unix based systems (except OSX.) What is available is a cheap imitation of what I can get on Windows or Mac. Still, I have hope for the future.

anyway, this thread will go in circles with people proclaiming "such and such is crap" and someone else going "well, it works for me." I can only throw in that most everyone I know who works in the computer industry, as well as most users I know, have had great experiences with 2000 and XP, and only a handful had problems with 98SE (note that 98 and 98SE are very different in stability.)

oh, yeah, in case anyone thinks all I use my pc for is typing text or whatever is safe in all systems, I do code compilation, video editing and encoding, and run lots of complicated audio software, as well as regularly installing software to test, then uninstalling without reinstalling the whole system.

I'm not saying windows is the best system, but it certainly does not deserve the bad rap it gets, in the same way that unix based and mac systems do not deserve the "pefectly stable and useable" tag that often gets thrown onto them.

"Apple is my choice since it's there in all the manufacturing. There aren't any compatibility issues or sound card specifications. It just works."

what if you want to use a soundcard other than the one built in? or a different video card? those are the first two things I would replace if I bought a mac, because the built in ones may be great, but they are not up to the level of what I use such hardware for.

I've seen a mac, with standard hardware, and nothing special installed, freeze on a cd burn, requiring a hard reboot. (yes, this was OS9, not OSX.)

To the guy that complained about everything in XP being hidden: to the best of my knowledge, almost everything that uses a wizard interface can be made non-wizard, but they do try to hide how from you, and I don't know for sure about the network setup, as I have a very basic network setup. What I do know is that once you get deep into it, XP is the most user configurable windows version ever. I can configure things most people don't even know exist.

What it takes, though, is an approach similar to the one you would take to FreeBSD or similar - you have to teach yourself about the inner workings of the system. It takes time and dedication, but you can get in there if you try.

as for the whole "monopoly" thing - you don't think Apple would like a monopoly? or any other company? of course they do. Microsoft are just honest about it and go about it without trying too hard to hide what they are doing. I don't hate them for it, but I do think pepole should be aware of how companies try to manipulate their thinking and working patterns, and educated as to how to make their own choices and try alternatives.

of course, that would require actual pro-active action, rather than simple punitive monetary damages, which are nothing more than a slap on the wrist. It would also require admitting that Microsoft are not the only people who act this way, but then we couldn't all have such extreme hatred for them.

of course, being that I am not a microsoft hater, my opinion must be somehow biased or incorrect, since everyone knows how crap microsoft is :p

Just chucking FYI, the codename for MS's new operating system is apparently "Longhorn".

I know open the floor for baseless speculation and slander as to where they came up with that name. ^_^

Sincerestly Yourses
Mac

Another thing they do which makes me really hate them is that when they are faced with competition, instead of improving their own products, they use lawsuits and patents to crush the opposition, allowing their own software to prevail. Look at the IE vs. Netscape thing. Netscape was by far the better browser, but Microsoft just started budling IE in with their software for free, so it was impossible for any other commercial company to compete.

Now you've got the Mozilla Foundation which is steadily chipping away at Microsoft's dominance. Latest figures put Internet Exploder down to less than 70%, with Mozilla (Including FireFox) up to almost 17%.

Usage of Linux is also now up to 3%, and Mac up to 2.5%.

Microsoft is going down. :D

Just chucking FYI, the codename for MS's new operating system is apparently "Longhorn".

I know open the floor for baseless speculation and slander as to where they came up with that name. ^_^

Sincerestly Yourses
Mac
Windows BSE! :)

Another thing they do which makes me really hate them is that when they are faced with competition, instead of improving their own products, they use lawsuits and patents to crush the opposition, allowing their own software to prevail. Look at the IE vs. Netscape thing. Netscape was by far the better browser, but Microsoft just started budling IE in with their software for free, so it was impossible for any other commercial company to compete.

Now you've got the Mozilla Foundation which is steadily chipping away at Microsoft's dominance. Latest figures put Internet Exploder down to less than 70%, with Mozilla (Including FireFox) up to almost 17%.

Usage of Linux is also now up to 3%, and Mac up to 2.5%.

Microsoft is going down. :D

I think there's some truth to the 'whoever's the biggest gets blamed for everything' sentiment. Back in the 19th century people blamed Britain for everything that went wrong in the world. Now they blame America.

My choice to remove Internet Explorer and Outlook and use Mozilla instead was dictated by the amount of viruses and malicious HTML code out there that specifically target flaws in those programs. But if Mozilla was used by the whole of humanity, the hackers would go for that instead.

I do adore Firefox for its tabbed browsing, as well as for the fact that popups just never seem to happen to me anymore...

mmm, firefoxy goodness.

Now, more baseless speculation as to the origin of "longhorn" :D

Mac

nah, Mozilla is safe, if flaws were found in it they would be fixed in days, the last major update of IE was 2001, Mozilla was about 2 weeks ago.

Microsoft buy out or destroy any competition, they ARE evil, they have patents for things the open source comunity developed, they have patented tabbed desktops, which are used in Gnome and KDE on Linux, their patent applications include pictures, and on some of them you can clearly see the Gnome logo! so, anyone who says they are just a company trying to make profit is wrong, they are an Evil Corporation!

My choice to remove Internet Explorer and Outlook and use Mozilla instead was dictated by the amount of viruses and malicious HTML code out there that specifically target flaws in those programs. But if Mozilla was used by the whole of humanity, the hackers would go for that instead.No, because Mozilla is open source. It is not the same thing at all. It's like saying that there are that there are that much accidents with people driving above the speed limit, because most people drive above the speed limit and that there would be just as much accident it the people would drive slower.

People hate Microsoft because they use(d) unethical methods to create and maintain a monopoly.

People hate Microsoft because their marketing department creates vapour ware that their programmers can't create.

People hate Microsoft because they're turned their customers into beta testers, and created a fertile enviroment for spammers, virus writers and other script idiots.

People hate Microsoft because they constantly attempt to embrace and extend every idea to be usable only on MS products.

People hate Microsoft because they chronically add small incompatibilities between versions of their software that make it difficult/impossible to use older versions of prodducts.

People hate Microsoft because after near 15 years of attempts, they still haven't created a product that Just Works (tm), is secure, contains a minimal number of serious bugs, and is priced in proportion to the hardware needed to run it.

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Black - White .. Nah.. Grey - Gray

I heard they're releasing a new OS combining the best (?) features of NT ME and CE. They're calling it CE.ME.NT.

ME has "best features"? :eek:

ME has "best features"? :eek:
it didn't make you computer explode, so be thankful

So many people use the bloatware known as "windows" for several reasons;
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- It comes pre-installed on most PCs
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- In terms of up-front cost, it's cheaper than other commercial operating systems
- "Everyone is using it", apparently
- They've committed some heinous crime against god and are being punished.
- Did I mention that, apparently, "Everyone is using it"?

I must now go and remove the uncleanliness from my keyboard, screen, and hands.
I'm not using it :D
I love gnu!

Lord, I love this comic.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=archives&date=2004-07-14

Lord, I love this comic.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=archives&date=2004-07-14

This one too.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-08-03

Mac comes preinstalled with Mac Mail, which, according to all the mac fanatics I know, is a piece of crap that shouldn't be used. they use something they think is better (I won't say what, because it's produced by microsoft, and everyone knows they only make crap software. only it's not true that they only make crap software.)My impression of Mac users and their affinity (or otherwise) with Mac software is essentially "Yes, some of it is crap, but it's our crap" and whether they delight or suffer in their Applised environment, at least they are not lemmings or rats blindly following Redmond's piper.

yes, winME was a disaster. However, I was able to successfully run a stable win98SE system for 18 months without issues. I have run 2000 and XP without any issues that weren't hardware related (dodgy hard drives, cheap modem cards, that sort of thing.)I'm operating W98 (SE, I think, but to be honest I don't care because it works) on my machine at home, since soon after its release. Sufficient for the needs and just the right interaction and never a problem, even with all the changes I've made. I 'support' ME on two people's computers (a relative and a friend) and it is a pig. I use 2K on my work machines and find it works Ok. I've started supporting a 2K installation on another friend's machine, who actually games on it, and apart from using it in a less secure mode (FAT32 not NTFS, auto-login to Administrator-level account, 'insecure' stuff like that because it will never be connected to a network without me being called upon to install the appropriate hardware and I can always re-install it if they decide to 'experiment' with it to breaking point) I think it's Ok. I also support a further friend's XP machine and though it seems to work Ok most of the time, I'm fed up with all those little 'improvements', like the extra step needed just to search all files. (Could try and switch that off, but it's not my machine...) And I'm not over-anmoured at the default Fisher-Price desktop (others describe it as Teletubbies... :) ) but again that's something that I suppose I could change.

Linux has given me the most hassles of any system, both in terms of setting up and in terms of continued running. Admittedly, Fedora does seem to be an improvement on Red Hat 9, which was a definite improvement on Red Hat 5 ( the previous red hat system I used, which was, imo, terrible, and put me off linux for a long while, until SUSE version 7 or 8 brought me back.)I've not had much experieince with (modern versions of) Linux. I used to be a bit of a Unix guru in my day but have forgotten most of it through inactivity. I like the idea of Linux and reckon I could get back in the saddle, but my opportunities are limited. I recognise that a brand-new user of Linux (especialyl one used to Windows) is almost certainly going to have difficulties navigating through Makefiles and the like when trying to install stuff. There's RPMs and things nowadays, I hear (and IIRC the name), but that's a strange new world for me.


I'm not saying windows is the best system, but it certainly does not deserve the bad rap it gets, in the same way that unix based and mac systems do not deserve the "pefectly stable and useable" tag that often gets thrown onto them.I think that while Windows is the visible face in the stocks, that gets hit by the rotten tomatoes of the relevant detractors, it is the body of Microsoft behind it that is attracting the true hate. When it runs right, Windows isn't bad. In fact it's a dream to use. It is when it goes wrong that it gets hairy, but that's (almost certainly) due to the way Microsoft has managed its development. The most OS-related complaint against Microsoft is the introduction of 'helpful' features that then get exploited by virus writers. Less OS-based arguments include the business practices that forced Windows onto OEM retailers and the like. Recently it has been announced (though I've not found a totally independant analysis of this turn of events) that MS won't be providing some updates to sub-XP machines and software in order to encourage everyone to upgrade their OS to that level. There's probably hyperbole in there somewhere, and there are definitely sound business practices involved, but the manner in which it is being reported makes it sound much worse than just 'dropping an old range'.

as for the whole "monopoly" thing - you don't think Apple would like a monopoly? or any other company? of course they do. Microsoft are just honest about it and go about it without trying too hard to hide what they are doing. I don't hate them for it, but I do think pepole should be aware of how companies try to manipulate their thinking and working patterns, and educated as to how to make their own choices and try alternatives.I think you're right, it's not just the cream that floats to the top, but the way in which MS has risen (nay, 'barged') to the top of the market is a little on the unpalatable side for some people. I'm rather put off by Redhat's apparent (to me) domination of the Linux market (and, besides, I'm too much of a control-freak and code-geek to go for an 'out-of-the-box' install of Linux when I dabble my toes back in that particualr stretch of water), but I must admit that I have the greatest love/hate relationship with Mr Gates's crew...

Look at the IE vs. Netscape thing. Netscape was by far the better browser, but Microsoft just started budling IE in with their software for free, so it was impossible for any other commercial company to compete.I remember when nasty commercial Netscape butted in on the original (for me, and at least the place I was at at the time) no-cost Mosaic domination of the market...

There was a moment or two ( I must admit) when my and my conteomporary geeks were smiling inside that a free browser from Microsoft was going to oust the nasty commercial Netscape. (To be fair, this was way before W9x domination became evident.)

Ah, don't times change. :)