Why we (shouldn’t) hate Microsoft?
Microsoft, the so grown software giant is not a fair topic to talk between tech people or at least to web developer community. For a long time since I am in the industry, I’m too posting comments and tweets against MS. The first reason I began to hate MS is their release of Malayalam translation pack in past 2006 when I was working hard at my home to patch windows in to Malayalam. Then I turned to Linux and now? I’m back on windows for at least last two years. Here I’m gonna make you love Microsoft and MS products.
Just analyze why people are hating MS. And you will love it.
1. Software monopoly : Microsoft holds a monopoly position in Intel PC Operating Systems. Business users require to use MS Office in order to remain compatible with their business partners and customers. And internet users are now using Internet Explorer in a ratio of about 8:3 over alternative browsers. Can you really call this a monopoly? Microsoft never pressure you to use their products. They have got success in software development and people love to use them. Can you say Coca cola is having monopoly on soft drinks? Don’t be jealous.
2. Yes we agree that MS boomed IT industry in to this level. But they where not doing charity. They made fortune with it : If you are using MAC, you don’t have right to talk like this. Apple is not doing charity too. If you are Linux user, one simple fact. There are near 10K software engineers at Microsoft and suppose they all work to build OS. How many volunteers are there for OSS? shut your mouth and make an OS like Windows. Ohh you don’t like Windows, love Linux? then go for it. And never look in to Windows. There are people who love Windows.
3. Internet Explorer is a Crap : Really!!? MS released IE6 on 2001. It’s competitors were Netscape Navigator, Maxton, Opera 5. Have you ever checked your website on those browsers and compared with this eight years old technology ? you are comparing IE6 with young browsers like FF and Safari. MS is trying their best to push IE6 users to IE8. But they really can not pressure everyone because then next complaint will come.
4. Need to update hardware as we update software : If you cant afford cost for new hardware, don’t download the new software. Be happy with old ones.
5. We love Google, so hate it’s competitors : MS is not a search engine company. But they build a decision engine recently. Wait and see how long you will love Google.
The only monopoly that Microsoft has is the investment in skill, experience, training, and tools of Windows software developers themselves. The programmers, who have logged many long sessions of coding for the MS Windows environment, and with their deep immersion in its assumptions, tools, and API’s, represent millions of person-years of Microsoft assets.
It is difficult decision for a professional developer to choose an environment other than Windows (cost, usability) . The scale of that market dwarfs its competitors and opens to developers many more specialty markets than any alternative platform. Windows is perceived as a platform that will be with us for a long time to come (even though you really don’t want it).
Future?
The color of Windows is fading out day by day. Apple is becoming popular among developers. OSS is more social and reliable than past. But guys at Microsoft are not sleeping. Silverlight will become a thunder lighting. Adobe is thinking that it is competitor for their Flash. But really it is not. Google is exited to announce wave and they are all thrilled to it. Apple is playing with every year release of iPhone. Microsoft opened up in cloud with Azure Services Platform. But they are preparing another big cloud. I will post it soon.
Now tell me do you still hate MS! Or did I missed anything?. Follow me on twitter to get latest updates on Microsoft.
I really, really hate Microsoft!
Windows is a cancer that makes the whole IT market to suffer! Microsoft is a BUNCH OF SHIT, targeting the easily manipulated part of the population.
Microsoft causes (or has attemptet to cause) a lot of damage and mess-up towards the computer market:
#1 “Palladium”
Palladium enforces Restriction on hardware: Linux and other OSs couldn’t run PC anymore, Software and Hardware developer whould have to pay horrible taxes to Microsoft(wich mean Freeware would DIE)
(click Here)
#2 “Certified for Windows”
Like “Palladium”, Hardware vendors have to pay horrible taxes. The result the hardware quality goes down and the Hardware industry has to suffer!
Microsoft is nasty shit company that should get burnt for being the software Nazis they are!
thanks for this info. i’m impressed that you have an realize from all that, excellent work for Some good content that you share on here.
Hey, I found this blog article while searching for help with fixing Microsoft Silverlight. I have recently switched internet browser from Opera to Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. Now I seem to have a problem with loading sites that have Microsoft Silverlight. Everytime I browse website that needs Microsoft Silverlight, my computer freezes and I get a “npctrl.dll” error. I can’t seem to find out how to fix it. Any help getting Microsoft Silverlight to function is greatly appreciated! Thanks
I’ve been looking for a while for a good article covering topic . Searching in Google I finally found your blog post. After reading this article I’m very glad to say that I have found exactly what I was looking for. I will make sure to bookmark site and check it out more often . Thanks! 🙂
Newer version of the browser timeline chart: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg
It was nice to read your article. – a controversial topic and it can always give you some visitors and comments 😉
Let me comment on it, point by point 🙂
#1 Monopoly
If a product is superior than its competitors and because of that reason, a monopoly is created, then one should not have any complaint. But in the case of Microsoft, it is not and that is the reason for people to hate it. Just compare any Mirosoft Product other than Microsoft Office (I think, it is the only superior product in terms of quality and features) with competing products. You can always find better freewares or commercial alternatives. Microsoft created a monopoly by making alliance with other hardware manufactures so that they will always get device drivers and the pc manufactureres bundled Windows OS with their product. Most common people don’t even know there are alternatives and even if they know, they don’t try it becuase what they heard is “it is difficult!”.
To make my point more clear consider the following scenario.
You’ve two normal PCs. In one, you installed Windows OS (Say Vista) and in the other you installed a Linux distribution (say Ubuntu) and just answer the question – which PC is more productive without installing any additional software?
Also, popularity doesn’t mean quality.
#2 Yes, I agree with your points regarding Apple. It is jsut another company making a fortune from its products. But I didn’t really understand the next point you tried to convey. “There are near 10K software engineers at Microsoft and suppose they all work to build OS. How many volunteers are there for OSS?” – Surely all of the software engineers are not developing OS and there are many volunteers for OSS as well. Were you trying to say that, “Microsoft has more employees and so there products are great” ?
“shut your mouth and make an OS like Windows.” – Why should one make an OS like Windows? If you’re asking about “build a superior OS” then it is already there.
#3. Yes, I agree that we should not compare IE6 with Firefox 3 or any modern browser. But the point is, IE never was the best browser. You can compare IE6 with the browsers of that time and it wasn’t the best if you compare features or performance. But the problem was compatibility. Many sites were using ActiveX controls or methods that were propreitary to Microsoft and were only tested with IE and because of that reasons they recommended their users to use IE only. Develeopers even created better browsers with the IE engine – with multiple tab support etc.
#4. “Need to update hardware as we update software” – Can’t blame if a software company specifies a minimum requirement for running their software. But if a company refuses to support its old products and compells the user to buy a new one, it is another thing. The problem is, for an user with an average hardware, there is no choice in Microsoft world. They have to either stick with the old Operating System which might have many bugs or upgrade their machines. But in the Linux world you can always find an alternative – For highend machines you can opt a distro and for low end you can opt for another distro – and you can be confident that all of them will be updated regularly.
#5. We love Google, so hate it’s competitors – Yes, it is not a good thing to do. Google is another monopoly – but mainly because of quality. It always has given something to the open source community. But there are arguments about the lack of transparencies in some of its policies. You may read something here. http://www.rinf.com/news/nov05/googlefacts.html
I have also written an article comparing Windows, Linux & Mac. You may read it here.
http://blog.hafees.com/windows/windows-linux-and-mac-a-comparison/
The one thing for which I hate..err.. ‘hate’ is not the right word.. I would say ‘like Microsoft to do’ is to compliant with the standards. be it web or other technologies, Microsoft sometimes deviated from those standards, because of which other developers had to suffer.
In my opinion, Microsoft is the company which inspired me to come into IT field.