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A Former Microsoftie Forecasts Microsoft Doom

Chris Holland writes "Jeff Reifman, a columnist for Seattle Weekly, has written a toe-curling editorial analysis of Microsoft's past and current missed opportunities, contrasted with its financial success, while covering in fair depth some of the most serious threats to their business model. Beyond the many choice quotes, I've found this article to be a very interesting read from somebody who has not only been on the inside, but also significantly developed his professional career thru Microsoft solutions."

10 of 1,015 comments (clear)

  1. Re:stop running windows 98 by Azghoul · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This is not insightful. Yet again, the MS apologists crawl out of the woodwork to proclaim that, "But this time (XP) it's way more stable!"

    Until your mother-in-law, who doesn't know any better, ends up with a machine so infected with worms, ad-ware and such that it takes 20 minutes to boot and pops up shitty IE ads every couple minutes.

    Linux and OS X ARE BETTER. Simple users who "don't know any better" can use those systems without the problems you get with Windows, and you people can't handle it.

    Yes yes yes, I hear you all braying about how you can "secure any system", how you have maintain your updates, blah blah blah. The fact is, you can't get a Windows machine from Best Buy and expect to use it for months without issues. You certainly can do that with OS X or a Walmart Linux PC.

    You're losing, your ivory tower is crumbling and you dopes can't see it. It's fairly humorous, actually.

  2. DOOOOOOOMED by DarthTeufel · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    IF Microsoft succeeds, we're all DoooooooooMED DoooooooooooooooooooMED DoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooMED

  3. Re:ugh, propaganda disguised as an article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    He even starts out with the standard windows is so unstable I have to reboot all the time! Which is not nearly true anymore as XP remains perfectly stable for weeks on end.

    I wouldn't go that far, but XP is a big step up from windows 98.

    I also love the later part of the article when this "Andrew" person expounds on how wonderful OS X is... compared to Windows98!

    Seriously, he should compare windows 98 to OS 9 which was a steaming hunk of shit. I don't see why there is so much OS X love either. I do most of my work on OS X with Project Builder and OS X crashes just as much if not more than a Windows XP box. I run into all kinds of idiotic shit, like if I close project builder it crashes (no really). Word doesn't even open, it just bombs, ever try sending an e-mail with a long link from mac's default e-mail reader? Watch it wrap the text and break the link in outlook, etc, etc. The best is when you get an error message like

    ERROR: -23

    At least with windows I have a semi-idea of what an "invalid page fault" is from my OS courses in college. The register dump is nice too, cause it looks 'leet. You can't do shit with it, but it's better than the lameaxe "ERROR - 23".

    This is another great line from the article...

    Microsoft has innovated less quickly than it could have. The company relies on the same strategy that helped it years ago come to dominate the personal-computer market with the Windows operating system, despite mounting evidence that its customers are looking for a new approach. Competitors such as Linux and Google are gaining,

    Since I'm in the temple of Linux, WTF is linux so innovative about? Every GUI I've used for it is a shitty replica of Windows 95/98. Microsoft might not be inventing flying cars, or anything as cool as project looking glass from Sun, but at least their OS is evolving on the right path (it's getting better with every new version). Linux looked like Windows 95 in 1998, and it looks like Windows 95 now in 2004. WTF is so innovative about that? What is innovative about VI? Give me a fucking break already.

    Yes, google is a cool search engine with some neat R+D into distributed OS's. When they actually fucking make one, then we will talk about them innovating. Meanwhile they are a search engine. Yes, they are the best but comapring that to microsoft is a joke.

  4. Re:ugh, propaganda disguised as an article by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Just because you don't have problems doesn't actually mean anything. Your counterexample only shows that at least one person in the world DOESN'T have problems with XP. (Similarily, him saying that he has problems doesn't prove anything either.)

    Personally, I'm forced to reboot at least once a week due to performance issues, and I usually get a crash once every two weeks at best. When I used XP as a home operating system, it was fine, but using it at work is painful.

    I hear more people complaining about XP than enjoying it. That's certainly anecdotal, but anecdotaly, I also hear about more Linux and OS X users that enjoy their experiences.

  5. Re:OS X is no better than XP. by sammaffei · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Spoken like a true MicroHo.

    Have both XP and OS X boxes. Guess which gets used most.

    --

    Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.

  6. Re:The bigger they are... by bsDaemon · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    that is because Liberals and Moderates are pussies. Mecca should have been NUKED on 12 September, 2001. Iraq war should have consisted of B52 strikes on the all the cities, followed by armor and infantry moving to mop up, killing everything from camels to Ayatollahs.

    Colonization could then begin. Faluja Delenda Est!

  7. Re:Nice treatise by at_kernel_99 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Don't be so bloody obtuse. Did I not cite the example and then comment that it might be a bad one? Followed by an example that IS an application, not a driver? Sod off. Same goes for the mod that found Evo insightful.

    (I'll happily take my flamebait mod now.)

  8. Re:Nice treatise by kulack · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Open source has a much easier time convincing people to upgrade to the most current release because in most cases it costs nothing but a little time to move to the latest stable release.

    That's interesting.

    That's about the only thing that keeps me away from using Linux in a day-to-day perspective. That up-front-cost and investment in time.

    Yes, I know it will get a bit better (but not completely, OSS community moves fast). Yes, I know that its somewhat interesting. Yes, I know that there are replacement apps for the windows stuff I use....

    But I just can't afford the time investment of figuring out where to get linux equivalent of xxxx and how it compares and contrasts with the OTHER linux equivalent of xxxx.

    I believe that being raped by purchase/upgrade costs from Microsoft is FAR cheaper for me than those efforts and the time associated with them.

    Besides, Cygwin for basics gets me so close on windows gets me at least to the point that I can stay sane. 8-)

    --

  9. NAZIs mentioned, you lose. by twitter · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Look, freak, I didn't fire the first salvo in this "tit-for-tat" personal battle you seem to have with me. Actually, it's not just with me. It's with anyone who has anything positive to say about Microsoft.

    Actually, you did. You accused Reifman of being stupid and bitter because he dared point out software and cultural problems Microsoft. I've simply called you on it and you have yet to respond with anything but further insult and bile. It's nothing really personal, I've just noticed you are a Microsoft suck.

    Instead, I'll give you some free advice: Instead of acting like a Nazi, you ought to consider that people should be able to make their OWN CHOICE about what software they run.

    Yes, idiots like you are free to use whatever they feel like paying for. You deserve it.

    The rest of us, however, are free to read the information you pointed us to and see that you are full of shit.

    Failing that, the only other way I see for you to achieve happiness in your life is to recruit your own luftwaffe and lock up anyone who even considered a Microsoft product.

    Now that is wack. I'm laughing at you.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  10. Re:The bigger they are... by bsDaemon · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Because as we all know, Saddam was such a nice guy. he would have given all kinds of food and medicine to his poor, starving citizens who democratically elected him, had the big bad US not imposed those sanctions on those little doe-eyed children.

    Fuck you you commie pussy licker. Someone ought to crush your head into the curb with the heal of his Doc Martins.