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Microsoft Brand In Sharp Decline

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the no-surprise-to-anyone-here dept.

Amy Bennett writes "A recent poll of about 12,000 US business decision-makers by market researcher CoreBrand found that Microsoft's brand power has taken a dive over the past four years. According to the study, Microsoft dropped from number 12 in the ranking of the most powerful US company brands in 2004 to number 59 last year. In 1996, the company ranked number 1 in brand power among 1,200 top companies in about 50 industries. The CEO of CoreBrand said: 'When you see something decline with increasing velocity, it's a concern.' To add some historical context, IBM suffered a much faster and more severe decline in brand power in the early 1990s and it took them 10 years to rebuild the brand's reputation."

45 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. No way! by pubjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You mean, they put out a new version of their main product, it was widely ridiculed, and their brand suffered as a result? Who would have guessed!?

    1. Re:No way! by value_added · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You mean, they put out a new version of their main product, it was widely ridiculed, and their brand suffered as a result? Who would have guessed!?

      Well, the article suggest there are more possible reasons than the one you cited, but speaking of suffering, I'll offer up my own jab to add to the fun: No Recession at Red Hat. Maybe not a recognised brand name around the kitchen table, but somebody's noticing.

    2. Re:No way! by dpilot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The flip-side of "diversifying into new markets" is "the death of a thousand paper-cuts". Diversification can lead to newer and better sources of revenue and profit. Or it can give you new and exciting ways to lose money.

      The job of good executive management is to know the difference, better yet, to make the difference go your company's way.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    3. Re:No way! by djrobxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think Microsoft's problems run much deeper than just Vista. Microsoft has completely lost sight of how to create innovative products that people enjoy using. When they can't seem to innovate, they backtrack and try to compete with existing products. Only it takes them so long the thing they're competing with becomes deeply entrenched in the market and has become a de-facto standard. Examples: TiVo and UltimateTV. iPod and Zune. It surprises me that XBox has done as well as it has. Microsoft has been in the mobile phone business for over 5 years. They've had all this time to refine PocketPC/Windows CE as a phone OS. Still, I don't know anyone who really loves Windows Mobile. It's functional but clunky. Yet Apple comes along and takes their first stab at a phone, it's a smash hit with people overall. Vista is just another example of how Microsoft just "doesn't get it". They keep changing things around in ways that just aren't better, especially for less technical people. They keep taking their common "standardized" UI elements away from their applications. That goes for other products too. The most basic UI staple - the menu bar, is now missing from Internet Explorer 7 and Word 2007 amongst others. i really used to be a fan of Microsoft's products, but not so much anymore.

  2. Redmond weather alert by Facetious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Today's forecast calls for light showers with a high chance of flying chairs. Seriously, though, I used to doubt the power of "branding," but the more I learn about the average consumer (disappointing as it may be), the more I understand why companies care about this kind of thing.

    --
    Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
    1. Re:Redmond weather alert by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Branding == Reputation. Not quite. Reputation is one component of branding, yes. There's also qualities such as name or brand recognition (do consumers recognize your brand when they see it?), and brand association (what attributes to consumers associate with your brand?) and brand differentiation (how is your brand different from your competitors brands in the eyes of the consumer?)

      People don't always necessarily go for quality. If that were the case, McDonald's and a bunch of other businesses that turn out what are essentially low-quality, cheap or just plain mediocre products would be out of business.

      Some people want a brand because it represents an attitude -- like I'm different. Think of Apple's Think Different campaign. People bought Macs just to be different -- they didn't care about features in the OS or available software, they just wanted a different kind of computer.

      In the end the average Joe Sixpack buys what he finds familiar. He doesn't make buying decisions based on facts or critical thinking or anything related to clear, precise, logical thought. Kinda scary when you think about it.

      --
      My blog
    2. Re:Redmond weather alert by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      heavy Advertising doesn't always equate to a good reputation. It will help to an extent where people know your name and products and perhaps some trust that you are not a fly by night operation. But after that level it is up to product quality. The same for the reverse you can have an excelent quality product but without anyone knowing about it no one will buy it. You need a good product and the right amount of advertising to make a good brand image.

      Microsoft had relitivly good quality products in the past compared to its competiors durring the time before 2000 for the Desktop Market. Apple OS 8/9 wasn't there. Neither was Linux. So it had the better product for the desktop so it had the good image. Now with OS X out in full force. And Linux Desktops getting somewhat competitive. Microsoft is lagging in quality vs. their competitors.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Redmond weather alert by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Had an opposite experience which just goes to back what you're saying. My first car was a Ford Tempo. I was all "rah-rah, buy american, no jap shit for me!" My experience with that car was the kind of thing that causes PTSD. My attitude after that was "Fuck America, this time I want a car that works." Been happy with my rice-burners ever since. Fuck Detroit and fuck American crapitalism. Start making a product worth buying and I'll happily go domestic once more.

      Arguably, you had two sides of the exact same experience.

      It's not just a myth that the customer satisfaction of Japanese (and, increasingly Korean) made cars is way beyond that of US manufactured cars; it's measurable fact. I can see the underlying point of the whole "buy nationally made" crowd -- but, when you compare all of the little things that add up to owner satisfaction, Japanese manufacturers are legitimately kicking the ass of US makers.

      The few times I've been stuck with a US made car as a rental, it usually takes less than an hour to find several seemingly minor things that quickly turn into major irritants. Fortunately, I've not had to drive on in several years. But, in my experience, the overall fit and polish of a Japanese car is in a different league -- with some things in US engineered cars feeling just outright bizarre.

      Honda's "brand" recognition now basically entrenches concepts like: not sexy, comfortable, affordable, reliable, practical, and durable. In recent years US cars, especially at the entry level get: not sexy to plain ugly, uncomfortable, badly laid out, expensive to own, not durable, and handles poorly.

      Quite frankly, Honda can probably take the inherent boringness of a stock Civic to the bank -- because they're gonna sell so many of the damned things it isn't funny. A Dodge Neon however, never had such a reputation. Everyone I've known who owned one ended with something which leaked oil and occasionally required a big repair in the engine. I know people on their 3rd, 4th, or 5th Japanese car -- because they have always been reliable and satisfying to own.

      Am I being overbroad in describing US cars? Likely, but I don't think I'm overstating it either. The fact of the matter is, the things which cause repeat customers are a huge factor in determining the value of your 'brand' -- and Honda et al have steadily done all of the right things to get the most out of theirs. That's about the hardest thing there is to do!!

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Redmond weather alert by feepness · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In the end the average Joe Sixpack buys what he finds familiar. He doesn't make buying decisions based on facts or critical thinking or anything related to clear, precise, logical thought. Kinda scary when you think about it. Especially when you realize the same process applies to voting.
    5. Re:Redmond weather alert by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or maybe you're looking in the wrong places. With everything that's important to you, you have fanbois (it's got the right logo, buy buy buy!) and factoholics (plenty reviews, knows everything about the product beforehand). But what about the rest? I've found I'm far more of a brand animal when it comes to things I don't know much about, that are uninteresting, unimportant or very complex.

      For example, I recently decided I needed a good flashlight. What popped into my head? Maglite. Don't know where it came from, but you can bet it's branding. I haven't got a clue about flashlights, I don't think I've ever read anything like a flashlight review and so you go with what you've at least heard of. Another thing I remember reacting to was washing machine, I got the most common names down so when the store offered me this strange brand I became instinctively sceptical. Do I have any clue about the names I have heard? Hell no, but as long as it's not next to big neon "DON'T BUY" reminder it's still good.

      I don't think people have time to care about everything they buy, everything they eat, everything they do to that level of detail. It's down to exactly the same as who the fuck would read 50 pages of EULA. I'm not going to chase down the owner of the pig that became my bacon to hear if the pig was happy, or if I did there'd be 99 other things I didn't have time for. In the end, you trust the brand but not as such. But if one car company goes on about security, one goes on about sporty driving and one goes on about economics and MPG, you'd think there was at least some truth behind it.

      I think there's a self-imposed reality distortion field going on there, because it's not important brand is not important. But most people *don't* have strong feelings for a lot more than they *do* have strong feelings for. Most of the time it's habit, but brand is what gets them into the habit in the first place. I haven't got a clue why I pick up the soap I do, or the shampoo I do, or the toothpaste I do or a million other things. I just know that for some reason I picked that one over the one on the shelf next to it. That's brand as good as any.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  3. Wha? by Clovis42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can someone explain what "brand power" is, and how you can possibly measure it? I know that "branding" is important, but ranking companies by "brand power" seems like useless information being created by "CoreBrand". I'm guessing CoreBrand didn't make it very high on the list themselves...

    --
    Clovis
    ^ Clovis, look! It's that guy you are!
  4. No suprise... by ZenDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my opinion they need to stop trying to take over the internet and look internally to focus and improve their core product lines. The release of vista and its lack of acceptance in the business sector was a huge blow to their reputation. I personally am aware of several VERY large companies that were considering Vista a year ago and have completely turned 180 degrees towards open source. I dont know how far MS thinks they are going to get by forcing Vista down the corporate throat.

    Im not a microsoft hater, in fact I depend on MS products to make a living, but I know Im not alone on this sentiment.

    1. Re:No suprise... by v.dog · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IMO, MS lost its direction when they became entirely marketing/business/lawyer driven instead of engineering driven. If they dumped the power hungry upper echelons (Balmer I'm looking at you) and started actually making engineering decisions (maybe even sound ones) they could turn things around.
      Good engineering isn't enough. I've seen a lot of software and hardware with brilliant engineering, but with no thought whatsoever given to aesthetics, usability, or the actual wants and needs of the customer.

      Until Microsoft decide to focus on shipping products that their customers desire over focusing on their stakeholders, their brand will continue to suffer.
      --
      Don't Panic.
  5. What Microsoft has forgotten.... by Rod+Beauvex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsfot has forgotten, like many other corporations, is that all one needs to focus on is making a quality product. If you do that, all other things, quartely earnings, shareholder returns, marketing, ect, will take care of themselves natually.

    1. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by trongey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsfot has forgotten, like many other corporations, is that all one needs to focus on is making a quality product. If you do that, all other things, quartely earnings, shareholder returns, marketing, ect, will take care of themselves natually. That explains why Apple is on the list and McDonalds isn't. Oh, wait, it's the other way around.
      --
      You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
    2. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by z80kid · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Microsfot has forgotten, like many other corporations, is that all one needs to focus on is making a quality product.

      Forgotten?

      Seriously - at the risk of sounding like a basher - has Microsoft ever produced a product where they focused on providing better quality than the competition?

      I've known many people who have purchased Microsoft products for compatibility with existing infrastructure (basically vendor lock-in). I've never personally known anyone who has bought a Microsoft product because they perceived it as having more features, being easier to use, or being more stable than competing products.

    3. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by mikael · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Microsoft's strategy has always been to bundle everything together, so no product ever really had to survive on its own. Bundle Windows 3.0 with MS-DOS. Bundle the internet browser with the OS and make it part of the desktop. Bundle Windows 95/99/NT/XP/Vista with new PC's being sold. Bundle Microsoft Word with Excel and Powerpoint, and so on...

      Five years ago, a corporate environment had to use Microsoft word for creating documents and Outlook Express to send/receive E-mail. Now, you can use OpenOffice or PDF files to exchange documents, and use any type of client to send/receive E-mail.

      Nobody would really want to buy each item individually when they could get the equivalent applications from the open source community.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    4. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by agent_no.82 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That would be nice, but it's incorrect. All they need to focus on is providing the product that their customers demand, or would demand if they knew better and found out later how awesome it is.
      For Microsoft, a quality product would be key, since operating systems are not commodity yet. For a number of other fields, such as some foods, price is the more important factor.

    5. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsfot has forgotten, like many other corporations, is that all one needs to focus on is making a quality product.

      I'm not convinced Microsoft ever knew that - at least not in the way you mean it.

      Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure at some levels there are people trying to ensure that it is, in fact, a quality product -- at least as much as it can be.

      But, Microsoft has always been focused on making sure you buy their products, no matter what. They managed to get IBM to make it mandatory, then it became the de-facto standard, then it took a lawsuit to try to be able to buy a PC which MS wasn't paid for. They've not been above strong-arming people and saying that you must do it on our terms, or not at all.

      Their entire corporate strategy has been to try to push out competitors by making them not work with their stuff, and try to make sure that top to bottom you use their stuff for everything you do.

      Microsoft has never truly been interested in competing purely on the quality and merit of their products. They have always had an evangelical position that essentially said "we're good, we're getting better, stick with us and keep paying us, and eventually we'll deliver something which does what we promised the last version would do". And, they're not above a little deception to do it.

      And, quite frankly, Microsoft has never had to compete purely on quality. They started off with an unfair advantage, translated that into an assload of cash, and then they used that to get themselves further entrenched.

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    6. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by jollyreaper · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Microsfot has forgotten, like many other corporations, is that all one needs to focus on is making a quality product. If you do that, all other things, quartely earnings, shareholder returns, marketing, ect, will take care of themselves natually. Not quite, and that's the bitch of the matter. Having a good product is maybe three-quarters of the battle but then there's all of the political bullshit that can still sink a great idea. You do need Marketing to cut through that crap, you do need schmoozing, and a lack of these kind of soft skills can see a company fail. But by striking this very faustian deal, the company is doomed. Marketing is no longer the necessary evil in the organization, it metastasizes becomes the prime evil that infects every part of the organization, corrupting and destroying until there is nothing left but rot and ruin.
      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    7. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by barzok · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Seriously - at the risk of sounding like a basher - has Microsoft ever produced a product where they focused on providing better quality than the competition?
      Plenty of times. But only until they beat the competition, at which point they get complacent and either don't make improvements, or start turning out crappy "upgrades."
    8. Re:What Microsoft has forgotten.... by dpilot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      1. Take care of your customers.
      2. Take care of your workers.
      3. The profits will take care of themselves.

      T.J.Watson, Jr.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  6. Interesting.. by Idaho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft may be down quite a bit, but Apple is not even on that list at all.

    IBM is at spot #18, which is quite surprising really - as far as I noticed there are no other software companies that high on the list at all. Most of the top 25 seems to be car companies, food/drinks/restaurant franchises and the like.

    --
    Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
    1. Re:Interesting.. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The list is what a few business people think about various brands. It is not a "brand-power" list. Surveying some business leaders might be a reasonable way to rank brands like UPS and FedEx, that primarily provide business services, but it's not going to give you a good read the majority of brands, which are targeted towards the general public. I don't know how Campbell's Soup and Colgate got on there.

  7. Re:Brand Dilution by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The difference between Vista and ME is that now people have a choice. Back then Linux was too hard to use, too hard to even find out about. Apple was a has-been, and OS2 had made a good attempt, but clearly failed. Also, for those who complained too much, there was Windows 2000/NT, so there was enough goodness coming out of Microsoft to keep people happy.
    Now, on the other hand, Apple is cool, Linux is for sale at Dell and Walmart, people realize that Windows XP isn't too bad, and there is no great potential for a new OS in the pipeline from Microsoft(as there was with win2000). Yeah, there's Windows 7.....don't hold your breath). Their brand power was good, now it's getting bad. The winds of change are in the air from a lot of different directions.....no company can hold a monopoly forever, it is destiny that there will be a change. The only question is when.

    --
    Qxe4
  8. Re:When you come to the fork in the road, take it by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the point of being cool is you're not just another random person That's the nerd definition, perhaps, which makes sense considering it's a culture that celebrates the love of obscurity and shunning anything anyone else likes.

    The reality is, being cool is about being cool. Can't be defined. Any attempts to do so peg you as uncool, and you'll probably never know why.
  9. Re:You don't say... by quag7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have a hard time telling here whether you're serious or not, but really, more people hate Microsoft than love any alternative. Most casual computer users I have met (therefore I very carefully make no broad sweeping statements about "all" of any population of people), gripe constantly about Windows but use it anyway.

  10. Re:What the heck is this a measure of? by Jellybob · · Score: 2, Insightful

    At the moment their a single digit player, but they are no longer just for graphic artists.

    At work, just about everyone here has at least one Apple machine at home - for most people they're the primary machine, and all the new workstations I've seen bought at work have been a variety of MacBooks. Admitadly this is a Unix shop, so there's likely to be more of a skew towards Apple hardware.

    However, almost everyone I talk to about getting a new computer is seriously considering Apple hardware. That's not just geeks, this includes my land lady, my flat mate (who's a carpenter), and even a 60 year old receptionist in my last job. Apple are huge at the moment, and I can't see them going away any time soon unless they do something *really* stupid.

    Some of it is branding, and making good looking hardware, but a lot of the influence they're gaining is quite simply through building software that people want to use. People get excited about applications like iPhoto - when's the last time you heard someone actually being interested in Office?

  11. Microsoft brand declining? Depends... by Techguy666 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the TFA:

    Among its peers in the category of Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software, Microsoft is second to IBM in brand power, with Toshiba a close third, Gregory said. If Microsoft's downward trend continues, Toshiba could pass it in brand power next year, he said.


    I'm an educator and work with kids (and some university students) all day. Ask anyone aged 10-25 what Microsoft is known for and they'll say Xbox (or Xbox 360). Sit kids in front of a Mac and they'll start messing with it; sit kids in front of a Windows box and they'll start messing with that. They don't "see" the operating system or the cognitive dissonance of the Office ribbon... They're still platform agnostic. And Microsoft is counting on that.

    We associate Microsoft with "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software", we hate their stuff, and we take glee in the decline of the Evil Empire that brought us Windows, IE, and OOXML. If I were to be associated with the Vista debacle and ActiveX exploits forever, I'd want my brand to die, too!

    Don't be fooled by the article however, Microsoft still has the mindshare of future consumers - they're the cool company that brought us the Xbox, Xbox Live, and the Halo franchise... In another 20 years, wouldn't you want to buy technology from the guys who brought you all the great memories from your childhood??

    Apple went from a declining "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software" company to a hot mainstream company, and used the iPod halo effect to come back into their old, failed "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software" market, hotter than ever. Microsoft is simply stealing a page from Apple and guaranteeing its survival for the next 20 years, when the Xbox gamers of today take their turn at being CIOs and CTOs.

  12. Re:When you come to the fork in the road, take it by p0tat03 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unlikely. Apple only owns about 14% of the laptop market right now. Just look at the iPod - initially it certainly did impart some coolness on its owners, but in the end it simply became a hip commodity item, like driving a hybrid.



    Until we see another company as consumer-savvy as Apple come along as the next underdog chic electronics manufacturer, I think Apple's position is pretty safe.



    As a Mac user I can only see the pattern continue. The Mac has seen an explosion of popularity ever since the Intel switch (the best move ever, really), and that has started to remove the main weakness of the platform: lack of software. Many app developers are now clamoring to port apps to the Mac, and most encouragingly a lot of open source projects now have stable Mac ports as well. As the software barrier becomes removed it will only become easier to switch to the Mac.

  13. Re:So who is the current #1? by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hahahahahahaha.... they might be if you could actually trust them to run reliably. A lot of people don't ride their harleys to the bike rallies: they drive their car and cart the harley in a trailer. One of the reasons that's so is because riding a motorcyle long distance is very tiring, the other is the rate of failure of Harley's is atrocious.

    I can't believe I'm doing this, but if Harley Davidson is ranked number 4, then this study has little or no bearing on the reliability of products the company makes. At best, it's showing what the public perceives the reliability of the products the company makes.

    --
    Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
  14. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  15. ...and that people *don't* have a choice by phorm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, one thing I remember about ME in comparison to Vista, is that it didn't last all that long (even MS dropped it somewhat like a hot rock), and that the previous options (win98) were still supported, followed not too long after by a somewhat worthy successor (win2k and, eventually, winXP). I know only a few people who had machines come with ME, and when those machines screwed up, 98 still worked.

    Vista is different, as there is a lack of choice in the MS realm. If you want to run software that runs on a Microsoft OS, you need to keep your old PC up and going for as long as possible, or switch to Vista. With the limited exception of some business-class machines, a lot of newer machines simply *do not* work properly in XP: There are no drivers, or limited functionality (no cardreader drivers, media buttons don't work), or many other hurdles to using the legacy OS. People are forced to try Vista, and because of that many have the choice of either "love it or hate is." As it is, with a mediocre reception in the business arena, and a less-than-warm reception in the home arena, this has turned a lot of people off the MS brand, moreso than previous issues.

  16. Re:When you come to the fork in the road, take it by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh wow, there is so much more to being cool than differentiation. The truth is, random people CAN be cool. The real world isn't like high school where people are divided up into "cool" and "not cool." That's so lame. In the real world, trying to make other people think you're better than them is NOT cool, it's weak. In the real world, making fun of the 'dumb' kids isn't cool, it's messed up.

    Coolness is about being yourself, respecting other people, and not getting pushed around. It's about learning how to communicate with people in a way they understand....that's why if you go to a club, it is important to dress nicely, because how you dress is an immediate communication of who you are. If you're thinking only about yourself all the time, "oh, I hope they think I'm cool" that isn't cool, that's following. If you're thinking about other people, "hey, I can help this girl out" that's cool. If people aren't recognizing your coolness, it's because your having issues communicating (body language, bad mood all the time, your manner of speech). Uniqueness isn't necessary to be cool (think of the common peer pressure technique, "everybody's doing it"), but being yourself is. That's where the uniqueness comes from. That's why we can all be cool, because we don't feel we have to be "better" than someone else to achieve it.

    As for Apple, people will buy it if it makes them feel good, or if it's useful to them. Buying a Mac makes my friend feel good for a number of reasons. It made me feel good too, but for different reasons. If people still feel good buying Macs when they are as popular as iPods, then that will be good for my Apple stock.

    (Sorry for the rant, it just bugs me sometimes when people think they have to put other people down in order to be 'cool'. Not saying you did that, it's been on my mind).

    --
    Qxe4
  17. Re:When you come to the fork in the road, take it by somersault · · Score: 2, Insightful

    'only' 14%? Against Dell, HP, Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc? And running a completely different OS by default no less. Wow.

    Only: "merely: and nothing more;"

    It's a bit more than 'only'. I've always liked Macs since the late 80s. I kind of detested how it took the iPod to get them into the mainstream, but I like the halo effect that it had anyway. I now only use Windows at work and 100% of my time outside of work is spent in Mac OS. I've just got a PS3 today, and have had a Wii for the last couple of years. I may boot into Windows at home to play Test Drive Unlimited again at some point, but I think GT5 and GTA IV will be good enough that I won't have to. When TDU2 comes out on the PS3 I may just never need another game again (I have a nice setup with a full HDTV, soundrocker chair, and steering wheel with clutch and stick-shift :) ) ;)

    --
    which is totally what she said
  18. Another Columnist Discovers The Real World by Whuffo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Having a strong dislike for Microsoft is nothing new around here; we've seen their products and practices up close for years. It's only now that the media is discovering what we've known all along.

    The problem with Microsoft isn't Vista or Clippy or XBOX360; those less-than-good products are just the result of the arrogance that runs through everything they do. They've turned out a few good products, too.

    If you need to point a finger at them, how about pointing at - well, how about their anti-trust conviction? Did you notice how they changed their ways after this conviction? No? That's what's wrong with Microsoft. It's the anti-competitive way they insure that every new computer has Windows installed. It's the anti-competitive way they bundle other products. It's all the companies who were crushed by Microsoft - but not before Microsoft "liberated" the intellectual property from those doomed companies.

    How about their shrink-wrap license agreements that they use to bind you - but if you disagree and try to use the remedy they've provided (return product for refund) you'll find that's virtually impossible to do? How about the way they're currently trying to subvert the ISO standardization process?

    Remember when XP went out the door with a list of 50,000 bugs still unresolved? They're still sticking band-aids on it - but rather than complete that product they're off to yet another (arguably less functional) product which was also rushed out long before it was ready.

    For those who want to defend this miserable excuse for a software company, here's a question for you: name 10 technologies that Microsoft has shipped that were invented in-house by Microsoft.

  19. Maybe companies are finally getting fed up with by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    how Microsoft refuses to play well with others. That is my biggest beef with them on a corporate level. We are currently trying to integrate a few windows machines into our all mac/linux network, and it is painful. There are all sorts of "security policies" that need to be fiddled with because they aren't the same, XP gets upset if you have more than one domain controller on different domains it seems, and it doesn't even support NFS....NFS a protocol that will be celebrating its 20th birthday next year, isn't supported by Windows XP. Can you name me one other major PC operating system that doesn't support NFS out of the box? Any Mac box can be an NFS server or client, ditto for Linux, BSD, Solaris etc. But since it wasn't invented at Microsoft Microsoft doesn't consider it to be important, esp. since they could use their lack of NFS support to get you to buy a Microsoft server product that does the same thing but isn't nearly as secure.

    SSH, LDAP, etc. the list of technologies that almost every other OS on the planet supports but XP doesn't(I don't know about Vista, but it's not like XP is that old). Microsoft's client OSs seem to have features that try to force you into buying Microsoft server OSs. Samba is great, and I certainly don't want to denigrate the brilliant people who write the stuff, but it shouldn't be necessary. Maybe back in 1996, when most business networks outside the megacorps consisted of a dumb hub with very little centralized management Windows wasn't all that bad, but the problem for Redmond is that the rest of the world moved on and they didn't. They still seem to think its a Microsoft only world, but the rest of the world thinks differently.

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    Monstar L
  20. Re:So who is the current #1? by Ralgha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This study has nothing to do with reliability, only brand recognition. Regardless of Harley's reliability, they are a very, very widely recognized brand name.

  21. Re:So who is the current #1? by jdubchak · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The article isn't about product reliability, it's about brand identity. Brand identity is about awareness. As they say, any publicity is good publicity, it's who consumers are attracted to because of the brand. Apple computers fail at roughly the same rate as any Intel-based PC (e.g. Dell, HP etc.) however, because of the coolness of the brand, I would much rather own a Macbook Pro rahter than a DELL XPS, or an iPhone rather than a Blackberry. It's the brand, nothing more.

  22. Re:You don't say... by cheater512 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For some reason, Windows users feel happy after they fix their computer, not pissed.
    I believe thats the primary reason behind Windows still having popularity.

    You see it all the time.
    E.g. Printer wont print just before something urgent is due.
    They are annoyed when it occurs but are happy when they fix it (usually by rebooting or restarting the app).

    I've been watching people using Windows and most of the time they dont even realise when it crashes.
    Its just automatic for them to reboot/restart the program and they edit what happened out of their memory.
    I've actually had to tell someone that their computer crashed because they didnt notice.
    They have been taught that all computers are like that and they just accept it.

    Whenever I make Windows crash (very often with Explorer) I get really pissed.
    Which is why I make a point on not using Windows unless absolutely necessary.

  23. Re:You don't say... by BlueMoss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft makes money off of defense contracts and their contractors. You can be assured that the Green Zone is a Microsoft zone. The Business Software Alliance sues the customers of Microsoft by proxy. So its more than incompetence, Microsoft is the computer face of Brand America... and we know that brand has been in free fall for some time now. Apple seems more international, and less Amero-centric.

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    There are no absolutes.
  24. Re:You don't say... by Gerzel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With a distro like Ubuntu do those 99% need to deal with config files, CLI, and compiling from source?

    Seriously, using Ubuntu on this machine I rarely if ever have to go to any of those above. Almost anything I could want (except high-end games) is up on Apt/Synaptic with a decent summary, push button installation/un-installation/updates. Configuration is much the same way, with far more options available through nice gui menus than are ever available to the Windows user.

    Even those games that I have for linux such as Second Life and Eve Online have been push button to install. Sure with SL I did have to make my own menu button for it but that was filling in a gui form menu and was not strictly necessary.

  25. Re:jab by intangible · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Income doesn't matter in publically traded companies;  Growth matters, and hitting projections, nothing else.

    I wish I was a C-Level exec that could run a company for 10s of years without turning a profit all while pulling a 7 figure income and an 8 figure golden parachute when the company finally pops.

  26. Re:So who is the current #1? by WingedEarth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I generally point out that Microsoft's brand is dying because they've stopped innovating, but then, the only time Coca-Cola's brand ever weakened was when they did try to innovate (with New Coke). When they brought back the formula (Coke Classic), they recovered. I guess Microsoft is different, though, because they're a technology company, and thus should be perpetually innovating. Instead, they've turned into a bank, and just buy up other companies and use monopoly power to control their market.

  27. Re:jab by Richard+W.M.+Jones · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So last quarter RH's income was 22m while MS's was 6B+.

    That's profit, not revenue but anyway. MS's income depends almost entirely on a government-granted monopoly, whereas Red Hat is thriving even though they allow (in fact want) people to copy their software.

    Rich.

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    libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images