propaganda

What do you people think of Microsoft as a company? I just wanted to know if people really hated them or adored them for their products.

Personally, I hate them. I think they are a giant monopoly just buying out other smaller companies and destorying them. They just always remind me of the early 1900 trust companies.

SonicRL

I personally hate microsoft, but most of us use their products and they do come up with good quality stuff.

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adrik

I used to stick up for Microsoft. I like most of their products. I don't really think their products are HORRIBLY overpriced when you consider how many resources are put into making a product that will work with an infinite combination of hardware components.

People always say that Microsoft is just a monopoly who is out to kill the little guys. Maybe (a little bit anyway), but not entirely. Microsoft started out as one of the little guys. They just knew how to market themselves. Yes, there were some dirty tricks. People seem to ignore the fact that almost EVERY company uses "dirty tricks" at some point in their existence. Microsoft just seemed to do the right tricks to get them to the top, fast.

Their support has been top-notch in most cases (let's hope it stays that way). They've made a lot of investors lots of money. They continue to produce some of the best software (even with the glitches everyone runs into).

The_Dude

i really really wish they had some competition, if they did we'd be getting 10x better products.

i use all their products, but i never pay the outrageous fee they charge for them (let's not go into piracy on this thread)

i admire bill gates. i almost consider him as a hero, certainly one to look up to.

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"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

BoCo

Yup, same feelings here.

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LNCPapa

I really like Microsoft and Bill and I think they are doing things the Capitalist way - just like everyone else in this place.

LNCPapa

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No mercy for the bandwidth impaired

juanvaldes

Overprised. Anti-copetative. Sloppy. Shitty.

Good mice though.

BoCo

I used to feel exactly that same way, and in some ways, I still do. The reason I dislike them more and more everyday has to do with the fact that they've partnered with left-wing media whore NBC (MSNBC), they've become buddies recently with AOL, and they're working with the RIAA to take away my privacy. Plus, every damn week I have to get yet another security update because they did such a horrible job creating an OS that they still feel arrogant enough to charge $200-$300 for.

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Activism is a way for useless people to feel important.

bodypainter

I'll never forgive MS for their business practices dating back to the 80's. What they did to Digital Research, Lotus, Stac, etc was evil.

Jack Ruby

They're a fairly decent company I guess, and they've done good things for the computer industry. Of course they've made their mistakes, they've created a monopoly situation and Steve Balmer is just evil.

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You don't know what you don't know.

Craven Morehead

People may not like MS, but you have to admit that Bill Gates is an American success story. What he and the company has accomplished has been phenomenal. Granted they have little competition, however had there been its quite possible that multiple standards would not have resulted in such widespread usage of PCs and in turn the internet.

scope

My problem with microsoft isn't with their monopoly or market dominance: That's a part of capitalism.
My problem comes with their business practices and policies on privacy. I just cant trust Microsoft software.

I still use Ms Software though, because I dont have much of an alternative. I know a few people who went all-out against microsoft...Throwing out Windows and using Linux. A person I know even declined a University position because that particular University was funded by Microsoft. Thats a bit too far, in my opinion.

urbandev

Bill Gates is the best leader the communist party has ever had

sooz

I use the products... and bill is a badass... but i feel obligated to hate.... why?

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-sooz

manalone

The competition with open source software seems to be making better products.

The fact that MS have dropped their consumer windows crapola (aka 95/98/me) and gone NT with their line of OSes is a good thing.

yes they are anti-competitive, yes they have crushed their competition mercilessly, but find one market leader in a major industry with clean hands.

Oracle, Intel, MS, Ford, hoover... you name it.

I can't blame them for that.

The only office product I use is powerpoint (and occiasionally excel) I have windows 2k at home because I don't care what OS I use. so long as it does what I want. Similarly, my work computer is red hat 9.0 only, because I am a developer in network software.

Screw advocacy. Corporations are soulless, that's their job. Open source is nice and squishy, but it would not exist if the people working off source forge had paid jobs with real firms.

/me drops €0.02 in the jar

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Man Alone
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Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

Realizm

Microsoft's monopolization of several smaller companies and copying of several other "cool" features that other companies have while touting them as their own has been quite a disappointment. Their software is Good though.. The office applications are pretty nice and since they are the standard OS.. yay for them.

I have a certain dislike for them particularly because they bouth Bungie Software and turned it into Bungie Studios.. an exclusive Xbox developer now.. which sucks.. because I'm a platform gamer..

charliex

Like em, I think they make awesome products, since the 9X line was killed off and NT has taken over they've gotten a lot better, they have fantastic tech support for users and developers, i've yet to see any developer support rival MSDN.

Most companies have had some questionable tactics, but microsoft are considerably more successfull, why not complain about oil companies, or banks etc.

A lot of the reasons people don't like them isn't really based on anything valid, they just do coz everyone else does, if you hate them that much don't use their stuff, the OS zealots claim its a;l replaceable or better etc.

Conclamo Ludus

They keep me in business. I'm excited about open source taking some of their market share. There isn't much MS can do about it. They've got some shrewd business practices but no one can argue with their success.

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I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold.
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brandon11983

i've always been a microsoft fan. its a kill or be killed world, and i gotta respect their dominance. and ive never had any issues with windows products. XP Pro Corp is runnin just fine!

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Well behaved women rarely make history.

losfp

Well, they DO make some nice products. However when you're developing for as many types of environments as they do, you would expect a bit of bloat. Truthfully, their products run on a LOT of machines and there's been minimal disastrous problems IMHO. It's still fun to "hate" them though

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Grrr... Argh....

whale

sigh ...

They're like McDonald's. They may not have the best burgers. But, their burgers are available everywhere, taste the same everywhere.

cartmen34

That's exactly my problem with microsoft. Even though you say don't register, I still wonder sometimes if the OS isn't sending info on my info and my drive contents to microsoft. Think about this, everytime you connect to windowsupdate to get patches and sevice packs, you have them scan your computer. Who knows what info they are collecting.

I guess it doesn't really matter. I mean, we've all...well most of us...have the p0rn. So what if some stranger in a microsoft cube knows about my stash of pics? As long as they don't call up the friends and family and tell them, so what. At least I've got the Corp edition of XP Pro, so there's a little less info being sent.

muckluck

Microsoft Rules!! They have the best mice. Who cares if it is ruled by a money hungry monopolist who has obliterated any competition. Microsoft makes up for any wrong doing with the quality of its products.

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propaganda

I forgot to put that I don't dislike their products, in fact I use a lot of their products on a daily basis and enjoy them but I think they just take away some of the best companies out there.

Wyodiver33

I had a MS Optical mouse that died, I called them up and they replaced my 2.0 with a 3.0 Optical Explorer, no questions asked, other than serial number. They actually rushed the shipment. I was impressed by that. So, they are truely evil, but they have a nice streak now and then.

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I like stuff.

The_Dude

y'all should see the movie about bill gates and steve jobs.

how they started off and how they got where they are today.

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"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

Phaenx

You can't really hate them until they want to charge you 200 dollars for a 10 dollar piece of software. Fuck them, steal it off the internet.

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"I went shopping last night at like 1am. The place was empty and this old woman just making polite conversation said to me, 'where is everyone??' I replied, 'In bed, same place you and I should be!' Took me ten minutes to figure out why she gave me a dirty look." --Some guy

bundy

i agree totally with Phaenx!
thank god for the Internet.

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Ohayo!!!

twister002

They currently make the best piece of crap out there in a lot of cases.

Snakeyes

Me: Microsoft is great. They made my favourite OS, and I've been running this boot for almost 2 years now with no problems, and published Motocross Madness 2, one of my favourite games. Besides, Apple is a much more fathomable monopoly if you think about it. Not only do they make the only software for their computers, they make 95% of the hardware. Microsoft hasn't done anything wrong within the last 5 years, they're the forerunner in operating systems because they've made the best ones. That's the "monopoly".

Here's my typical conversation with these people.

Guy: FUCK MICRO$OFT!!! RIP THE SYSTEM!!!! LINUX FOREVER!!!!!!1

Me: What OS do you run?

Guy: Well.. Windows ME.. BUT I FUCKING HATE IT IT CRASHES AND FUCKS UP SO MUCH

Me: Then why not run *nix or something? You know, instead of whining and doing nothing about it.

Guy: Well.. the reasons are complicated. FUCK YOU MICRO$LAVE, YOU'VE NEVER EVEN RUN LINUX!!!!!!

Me: Yes, I did. 2 versions, and I dispised every minute. Why do you think every piece of software out there is for Windows?

Guy: Fuck that!!! All servers run Linux because it's more stable!!

Me: Ever heard of Windows IIS?


Anyway it goes on like that.

I'm really fed up with people like that. Face facts: Windows NT and XP are the best shit for office and home respectively, power user or not.


P.S. : Bill Gates used to be a fucked up loser with no money in his pocket, and nothing in his brain but computers. For where he is now, I think he deserves a pat on the back from all 100,000,000 of his users.

propaganda

I really don't hate Microsoft that much. I'll use the products but not with much hype.

Fallon

My personal opinion on Mircosoft...
I don't like them. I can't do anything about it though. I work in a company that uses NT, my mom needs the ease of use of 98 and my fiancee is to busy to learn Linux so she has XP. I don't like them for the fact that they release patches at least weekly for XP. Sure it's a nice sign they aren't giving up on their OS, but goddamn...why not do a little debuggin there before you release the thing. 98 I feel is less intrusive then anything above it, so that's a plus for it, but it crashes all the time. If you could take out the driver support for everything and it's mother, I bet it wouldn't be so bad, or slow. And NT has been pretty good I guess.

btw Snakeyes, not every piece of software is Windows, but I'm pretty sure you knew that, you were just saying it to some moron to try to prove a point.

THE MAC GOD

Pirates of Silicon Valley-go rent it.

I used to have an adversion to MS because they were against Apple. I have since come around and don't hate them, but don't like them too much either. I do use some of their products, like MS office v.X and explorer and the intellimouse explorer. So, I don't have the anti M$ sentiment that most Mac users do... but that's because I insist on keeping an open mind...

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Why continue fighting? Is it for Love? Illusions. All as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as Love.

bodypainter

If you want to read a really good, really amusing book, check out "Accidental Empires" by Robert X Cringly, subtitled "How the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still can't get a date".

Informative, entertaining, fucking hilarious at times. A bit dated but an excellent take on the PC business from 1975 or up to the mid 90's.

I love his take on how the business came about.
"
1. It all happened by more or less by accident.

2. The people who made it happen were amateurs.

3. And for the most part they still are.
"

Jesus Pimp

I don't hate them at all. Their software is optional unlike some other companies *cough* apple *cough*. If you don't like it, don't use it. Don't like IE? User a different browser. It's really funny how people bitch about them being monopolistic when there are other companies who are just as monoplistic or even more like verizon, apple, comcast, clear channel etc.

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propaganda

I don't really know those companies history that well so I could find out those maybe I could change my mind about Microsoft.

Konichiwaneko

The way I see it, access to computers have changed our lives so dramtically that the people complaining that a piece of software isn't worth $300 is crazy.

You spend $300+ dollars a month for a car to get you to your job, but if you are like me where you work the comptuer industry, having understanding of the lastest software and hardware makes sure you keep your job. What I'm saying is the investment makes sense. Even if you are a low level tech making $8 an hour, purchasing a meager program for only $150 for windows xp pro full can make you so much more money in the long run.

I personally respect microsoft. Here's a stat, 85% of our business in the US is small sole proprieterships. I feel Microsoft is the same way. Big player, but their's so many third party around. Microsoft also plays one major role, publishers, because of them we see things that might have never had the support to be released.

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kbc8090

Well said!

The Bolshevist

I don't want my hard earned dollars to go to some schmuck who can't write code worth beans, and always seems to have to develop patches, then patches for patches...if there was an easy, simple OS that had as much programs as Windows does, I would use it. But there isn't. Still, it doesn't mean I can't use what MS tools I do have to download open source stuff for FREE!!!

Windows Office $650 cdn. OpenOffice FREE.

My only income - my disability pension.

Simple enough.

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rubicon

Microsoft can be blessed and cursed at the same time...just like any large corporation. If you think about it, what big company do you absolultely LOVE without any malice? Doubt you can find one.

I don't hate MS but I'm not keen on everything being forced down my throat by them, or any vendor. Luckily I have choices: Mac, Linux. Linux is even free.

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