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Why Doesn't Microsoft Have A Cult Religion?
rs232 writes "'Apple has one. So does the Java community, Oracle, IBM, and Google. Lord knows anyone who uses Linux or free and open source software is dedicated to spreading the gospel of St. Linus Torvalds and St. Richard Stallman. But does anyone really worship the Gods of Redmond?' While many Microsoft employees are pumped to work there, article author Michael Singer explores why even enthusiastic Microsoft-watchers acknowledge that customers and product developers are unenthusiastic about the software giant. He theorizes that it comes down to passion: Microsoft lost that a long time ago, he says, and so passionate people gravitate to other projects and products."
Here ya go.
True, it's not for Windows, but you take what you can get.
I assume the author has never had any experience with a small ISP attempting to sell microsoft small business server. In that market you will find the people that worship the juggernaut.
They called it MSCE. You got one, and you got yourself a $20+/hr job. Then the suits engineered a surplus of techs and outsourced every job they could, and that $20+/hr job became a $9.50 an hour job, and low and behold people weren't so happy with Microsoft anymore. Especially since a lot of them where still making payments on student loans.
Yeah, some of the blame goes to paper MSCEs, But not nearly as much as you think. And besides, paper MSCEs don't really care enough to bother proselytizing. OTOH, those ninnies do drive down the value of real techs.
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Slasdot is obsessed with MS, everything they do or say is subjected to unending speculation here, albeit negative. Outside of Slashdot I dont know a soul who really gives a rats ass what MS do and would never in a million years even consider discussing MS in the sort of emotive language used here.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
If you had had the fun I had last week with Exchange 2003 I don't think you would be calling MS the "best". It certainly wasn't an adjective that could be found in my vocabulary at that point in time.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
If you ever came across an underground blackhat site where malware and crackware authors collaborate and exchange information about the internals of Windows and reverse engineering, it's actually pretty cult-like. These sites have the stereotypical white or phosphorous text over black background design.
You can find such site by Googling for keywords like softice OR disassembly tutorial. Search terms like dll hook tutorial also returns several underground sites because it's an essential technique used by spyware authors.
I once had a signature.
If that were true there would be no hardcore Yankees fans because well, they win almost all the time(by virtue of having the most money, which shows that fans are giving them said money to spend, but I digress), and yet there are a ton of hardcore Yankees fans.
Being an underdog might inspire some people to become devoted to something, but the big dogs have doting fans as well. Just not Microsoft.
Monstar L
Having been a java developer for nearly a decade I never knew there was a Java cult. I wonder if I am a member unbeknownst to myself?
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
I got to disagree with the idea that Microsoft never produce anything really good.
Excel might be an exception as its interface at least used to be considered very good.
2 years ago at least one HCI researcher at kth.se admired Excel wrt her field.
I am using OO Spreadsheet nowadays as it is good enough and comes with Ubuntu, but it is still not as good as Excel was 10 years ago.
But then, I guess, 10 years ago there existed more of a Microsoft cult.
Hey, I'm posting this from my Powerbook. Though I could have posted it from my FreeBSD computer as well. No microsoft here, so I'm afraid I'm not one of those rabid MS evangelists you seem worried about.
:-)
The derision/sarcasm is real though
Every company I've worked in over the last 20 years has had a Microsoft cult; those same cults clamour for the homogeneous platform, certification, tools, ad nauseum. I've fought with so many of these cults to the detriment of projects its made me loose my passion for technology.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
I work at a university where those responsible for computing technology don't even seem to consider non-Microsoft solutions. Every embrance and extend technology that comes out of Redmond is rolled out as soon as possible. The people in charge seem quite like a cult of Microsoft to me.
I agree, Excel _is_ good. On the other I think Word is the worst piece of software ever written except for crappy 1990's VB shareware and Lotus Notes, which is the worst piece of software ever made by man (and that includes the Melissa virus).
I haven't tried the latest version, but at least up until now, Word has been a usability nightmare, and since it stopped getting more useful and powerful 10 years ago, there's been nothing but but bloat added to it since. A bunch of tick marks on some marketing drone's list. No one respects bloat. No one could ever be a fanboy of bloat. How many Netscape zealots were there after 4 came out?
Microsoft does some really neat things, especially Microsoft Research, but they are far overshadowed by its vast amount of mediocre and bad things. But even still, MS has software that could be worthy of cult-status, if they weren't a huge monopolistic bully that will do anything to succeed in business _except_ compete. Like was said above, cults grow up around the underdogs, but cults can also grow up around something large and tyrannical, like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany. Microsoft does have a lot of fanboys and dedicated diehard customers, but I suspect that most of them are not technical users. Cults can also grow up around innovators, and Microsoft hasn't innovated anything in a decade or more. They've done some good things, but none of it was innovative. Anything innovative that they could do is released years earlier by Apple or the open source world. Microsoft has invested so much energy, effort and resources into being a monopoly they don't have any other way to compete. And that's a company that won't attract a "cult".
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Microsoft does have followers/fans, and I'm one of them. So, the article & comments that folks like me don't exist is just wrong. Folks are just not looking in the right places. I founded and run the New York [Microsoft] Exchange User Group http://www.nyexug.com/ . It's over 2 yrs old as well. We meet monthly at Microsoft's NYC office, have about 175 people on the mailing list and all we talk about is Exchange Server. Yes, Microsoft Exchange Server. We are not alone. The same night there's a Microsoft Excel User Group. Yes, you heard that right, Excel! I couldn't handle one of those meetings, so I would consider that a cult of Excel. There's also Small Business Server and Enterprise Windows User Groups. See NYPC for more information on those other groups. http://nypc.org/sigs.php So, there are Microsoft fans out there, you just need to know where to look.
"Easiest target" is so right - but the "biggest" is not the "best", and the majority need not be a "cult" in itself; rather, it embodies a lack of one.
The cult is where the choice is. On the desktop side of things, Mac users chose to split with the "I use it because everyone's using it" majority, and now have a much better (and safer!) OS to be proud of. For the 'behind the scenes' cults, it all depends on trade: the *nix 'cults' know they're the majority in everything web and server - but the strength of their unity relies on the sheer weight of their knowledge (they almost have their own language for lord's sake) - quite the opposite of the 'collective delusion' sentiment of the Microsoft masses.
If you're still a Microsoft 'militant', you're either ignorant, working for the company or just plain cherry-picking mad. The Microsoft 'movement' is ignorance - forced or feigned.
Microsoft owes its fortune to ignorance. Gates saw a way to 'educate' first-time computer users to 'his' (not his own work, actually) platform through selling it to computer manufacturers - something the other 'cults' did not do. I would have no bone at all with this were Microsoft the best product out there - if they were, they would even qualify for a justifiable 'cult' status of their own (by those who chose to use it for its qualities) - but theirs has never been the best and, if they don't change their strategy, it never will be. Even if many tecnologically advanced countries may be wising up to the existence and quality of 'altrenate OS's', I don't see Microsoft changing anytime soon because of the fortune waiting in the hundreds of developing countries awaiting conquer in exactly the same way - through first-time user ignorance.
Microsoft is a culture of lemmings. The choice, thus the 'cult', lies elsewhere.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
Which illustrates the proper use of the term unpossible... something that is impossible but clearly has happened or is happening. Generally used (by me) when software misbehaves in unexpected ways. Unpossible things can have a wide variety of causes, from race conditions to library incompatibilities, and are especially aggravating to debug because the failure is usually due to a subtle misunderstanding of the software or its environment.