[MikeTbob]

Is Microsoft on the verge of committing suicide?

Hell no, we couldn't get that lucky! I'm with a lot of folks, I don't wish MS bad things but I do wish they would "change their Evil Ways". I'd love to see an awesome version of Windows But I am optimistically pessimistic this will ever happen.

[Oxygen]

I'd like to see them bite the dust if only to see people replace the monopoly with actual good inovative software.

[Manchunian]

Some of their software is good, though; but Windows isn't exactly one of their shining-light achievments!

[questio verum]

Originally Posted by Manchunian

Some of their software is good, though; but Windows isn't exactly one of their shining-light achievments!

Uh... they make decent game controllers. And keyboards and mice. That Xbox venture hasn't turned out too bad, either.

Actually the one piece of software they seemed to be doing quite well at was Office. Then they released Office 2007 and totally alienated the bulk of their user base. I know a lot of companies that have no plans to move from Office 2003. They say the training resources needed to teach their employees the counter-intuitive Office 2007 just can't be justified.

Do you think Ballmer's ego has anything to do with these recent bone-headed moves? The guy is kinda flakey.

qv

[elija]

Originally Posted by Oxygen

I'd like to see them bite the dust if only to see people replace the monopoly with actual good inovative software.

Microsoft isn't a monopoly, no matter how hard it tries to act like one. There
is Linux, Mac, the BSDs among others starting to gain a small percentage of the
desktop market and in the server market, things are even more difficult for
Microsoft with Linux, Unix, the BSDs, AIX, OS400 and many others also vying for
market share.

Originally Posted by Manchunian

Some of their software is good, though; but Windows isn't exactly one of their shining-light achievments!

Visual Studio.NET 2003 is the best development environment I have ever worked in.
They did lose their way with the 2005 version, way heavier in requirements with
not enough genuine advances.

They produce some good games too, Starlancer and later on Freelancer are a couple
of the most recent* games that I would list among my favourites.

I am still using a Microsoft Mouse and have only recently replaced my old Microsoft
Natural Keyboard. That was nearly 14 years old. I am finding it hard to adapt to a
normal one

* Recent by my standards anyway

[Artesia]

Originally Posted by Manchunian

... Microsoft does make some excellent software, Microsoft Flight Sim for example, let's be honest.

Agreed! I had some great times with that one. I was a heavy user when it was in version 5.0 and 5.1. There were no charts in the software, but I had an atlas with latitude/longitude lines. I always took off at Lindbergh in San Diego, since there were only a handful or airports available. Then I placed myself in the corner of a state and flew towards the opposite end, always using the 182RG. I scanned for VOR stations to keep myself occupied and if it was in the general direction where I was heading (of course I had to plot its location on my atlas) then I flew towards it. Sometimes their names corresponded with nearby cities that I found in the atlas. I recorded over 500 stations this way. I also recorded the lat/long of all my turns and major events (like a NAV failure) in a log.

This thing really fed my obsession with maps. I hurried home from school so I could fly fltsm5. Ahhhh, memories.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by elija

Microsoft isn't a monopoly, no matter how hard it tries to act like one.

The United States Department of Justice would disagree with you on that one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_anti-trust_case

[Manchunian]

Microsoft is a monoply at the moment, but what I'm saying in this thread is that its monoply is slowly passing, thanks largely to Linux.

Originally Posted by questio verum

Actually the one piece of software they seemed to be doing quite well at was Office. Then they released Office 2007 and totally alienated the bulk of their user base.

I agree. Office was good until 2003; 2007 is simply awful. I also agree that Ballmer might have something to do with it. Take a look at this, if you want a good laugh! Shame the guy missed!

Originally Posted by Artesia

Agreed! I had some great times with that one.

I loved this too! You really should try X plane. This is available on Linux and is considered more realistic than flight sim.

[elija]

Originally Posted by techieMoe

The United States Department of Justice would disagree with you on that one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_anti-trust_case

I don't think Microsoft are a monopoly, after all I am typing this in my non-ms browser running
under my non-ms operating system. There are alternatives and with a true monopoly there will only
be one.

The traditional definition is "a market in which there are many buyers but only one seller" Linky . By
this definition Microsoft isn't a monopoly, but they nearly are. The situation is slowly changing and bless
them for helping by releasing Vista.

I have only glanced through the details in the article you posted and using my vast powers of vague
recollection, that case was actually more about MS tring to stifle competition to become a monopoly
rather than them actually being one.

[Freston]

FlightSim 4.0 with the Aircraft and Scenery Designer add-on. Good times My favorite was the Piper Cherokee. I usually flew the default Chicago area as I had a small map of that. It had all the radio frequencies of the airfields, but none of the navigational beakens. I had to find them and write them down manually. *yeah memories*... my dads old DOS powered 286 with a 4 color monitor and 21 MB hard drive.

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Anyway, in my book Redmond _is_ a monopoly on the desktop. Yes I know we have choice. But let's face it, we're all a bunch of geeks and geekettes (and I mean that as a compliment ). The MS vs. alternatives is still in the order of 95-5. And it is still impossible to buy a Redmond free machine in retail. 95% of the people buy their new machine in one of them electronic stores. And they get to choose between any number of different brands of hardware, anything from Acer to Compaq to Fujitsu-Siemens... but no-one asks them what kind of OS they'd like to run on the machine. That's a monopoly.

Funny thing though, I see people get out of their way to buy a machine with XP installed. And that's a first. And when I look at Windows 7 previews, all I can think is "that's not an OS, it's an interface"... if you know what I mean. It's impressive, but Redmond isn't the only one to develop that kind of interface. Besides, anything that requires additional hardware is vulnerable in the market ... what with the cheap low powered miny lappies becomming popular all of a sudden.

And, also, I don't know about you guys and galls, but how impressive all those 3D effects are to new users, I must admit that I haven't ran Compiz on my machine for months. I like the look, but it doesn't help my productivity. I fear something along similar lines for the whole Windows 7 interface.
Yeah it's impressive. But does it really help your productivity if you have four or five related projects going and you have a deadline? Does it allow you to switch between tasks easily? When I'm working on my machine I have 12~15 windows open at any one time easily, and that's not counting browsertabs. How do you do that without loosing your sanity? Well, not with the Aero interface, that's for sure.


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On a related note. I tried to open a document from within Word2007 at one of my job locations. I had to use the help feature for that. Talk about unintuitive.