Why are so many people Anti-microsoft?

It takes about 4 clicks to change encoding back to MP3.

It's no worse than what Windows does with WMA... and if i'm not mistaken, ripping to WMA from a a CD may automatically DRM the files on your computer unless you specify (this may have been an earlier version of WMP).

EDIT: I just checked WiMP 10 on my XP laptop... it defaults to WMA encoding just like iTunes defaults to AAC, but I was wrong, it doesn't automatically copy protect the music, but it has the option to.

I prefer AAC myself anyway over MP3 and WMA... it being a MPEG-4 standard is highly desirable in my book, and I consider the quality to be superior.

Oh yeah, and the last time I checked, M4As play fine on Windows too. They are just standard mpeg-4 wrappers around AAC audio, so most players (winamp for example, or iTunes for Windows) can play them just fine.

 

That wasn't quite my real gripe, but I didn't give you much more information in the first place... It's primarily that you just don't seem to be able to use a device such as the Ipod without ITunes. I'm a "gadet guy" and have about 4 mp3 players, 6 minidisc, probably 10 CD players in the house ( :lol: talk about a "gluttonous American"), almost all of them you can plug into USB and drag and drop music files into your own folders OUTSIDE of their respective database software, as far as I know, not so with Itunes/Ipod, I believe THAT was one of my biggest gripes.

 

To each his own. I have way too much music to manage each individual album folder by folder in Windows Explorer or in the Finder on the Mac... I just throw it into iTunes and forget about it. it all ends up on my iPod anyway.

by the way, you don't need to convert any MP3s to use on the iPod through iTunes. MP3 is a native format.

 

Yeah, I know, again, I didn't get into it too deeply, but it was the other way around... a couple of my mp3 players didn't like the acc m4a format, and I wanted everything to be "interchangable" (this is REAL geeky, but I have a particular mp3 player for a particular activity, i.e. biking, traveling, etc.) I have an Ipod too, and it hasn't been used in months because it's waaaay too constrictive in that sense. I think there are far better devices out there for far less that are seriously underrated. But I suppose that's another argument for another day...

 

My dislike of Microsoft is influenced more by the company's morality -- or total lack of it -- than its products.

Microsoft began by creating and selling a small Basic interpreter for the MITS Altair 8800 - the first "home computer" created back in the late 70s. MS didn't achieve fame and fortune until IBM chose them to supply their operating system for the IBM PC. Does anyone know where Microsoft came up with an operating system? They "bought" it from Seattle Computer Products for next to nothing practically the day they met with IBM to seal the deal worth (eventually) billions. The actual creator of that product received almost nothing for his efforts -- never knowing that MS had already cashed in on his efforts until it was too late.

Microsoft's history is littered with bullying tactics and even outright theft of intellectual property. Does anyone remember a little company called Stac? They invented this neat way to extend disk storage by making a volume compressed on-the-fly. Microsoft tried to license it for nothing by bullying the little company, like they always do, but Stac held fast. So MS STOLE the code and built it into Windows. No kidding. Just stole it outright. They were convicted in court, but not until years later when Stac was long dead -- having had its market ripped off by Microsoft's illegal tactics.

Like any large organization, MS is filled with people who are good, and those who are evil. But the organization as a whole has behaved immorally and illegally to get and keep its stranglehold on the software industry. Like all tyrants they will eventually fall, and I will throw a party when they do.

 

But you are assuming that average folk interested in Microsoft Office will know that they should go to a friend's computer and look up this error.
You might know to do that, but I'll tell you majority of average people who just use MS Office DO NOT.
I can even bet that if you went to look it up, you would still have no f****g clue what it means and what you should do about it. Especially when they tell you that it might be caused be many different things.

And as you stated yourself you didn't really venture outside Windows so how can you assume that all these great things like plugging in devices and having them recognized right away is just on Windows?

You gave an example of a problem your friend had with connecting his Mac to the wireless network. Do you have more and more and more examples, or you just base your opinion on this one incident?
I can give you plenty problems with Windows XP. This is the most pathetic issue I had. My work bought Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite for Bluetooth. After a pain of pairing it with a computer running Windows XP, it finally worked....for half a day, well paired it again, and it worked, for half a day, after a week I gave up and called Microsoft. After a numerous calls and attempts to get this to work, the damn thing would not work for more than a few hours. Microsoft said it was damaged. Well, I took it home and guess what, worked like a charm on OSX! Paired it once and naver had to pair it again.

Perhaps instead of putting Microsoft on a pedestal you should at least put them even with other competitors out there, especially when you never really tried anything else.

 

My big beef with MS is not their questionable business ethics.
It is that they make products to serve the interests of business over those of the consumer who is actually buying their products.
That's one of the reasons their security has always been weak.
For example, they build in features into their web browser which make it easy for outside entities to configure your browser and provide an access point for installing and running outside sofware regardless of the knowledge or consent of their customers.
They are making efforts to shrink these holes but they certainly don't intend to eliminate them because the corporate world wants them.
Because MS is a monopoly, they can and do push things on us that we would not choose if we had a viable choice.

:angry: In short, MS treats its customers (us) like CR4P!
I say this as an IT professional (20+ years) who makes his living using primarily MS tools.

 

You must have been snooping around the office this morning. Deja vu.

I was gone on business for a week, had yesterday off, and returned this morning to find the network dead, server down, everybody running around like headless chickens. The "routine" every-4-months reinstall of Microsoft Project Server 2002 and Windows Server 2003, plus most of the engineering workstations running XP Pro, has gone horribly awry.

Let's put it this way, I'm using my notebook and Rogers Wireless high speed card to send my response to PriusChat.

At the time, the large engineering/integrator I contract for thought it would be a great idea to "standardize" on Microsoft front end and back end to cut back on support issues. Despite the purchase cycle that had new hardware at the same time, just the opposite has happened.

I'll be the first to point out we have heavy demands on our equipment: most of our work is embedded RTOS development for industrial and telecomm clients. We use Wind River VxWorks and QNX Neutrino, sometimes Sun's Chorus, to develop a lot of FB's and even complete hardware sensors for petrochemical, water treatment, wastewater treatment, pipeline, and Class 5 telecomm switches.

We used to have a hodgepodge of SGI workstations and VAX servers, and admittedly they were a PITA to configure and update. But they were also rock solid. Now we're stuck with "routine" 4-6 month formats and fresh installs to avoid the worst problems.

At the latest tradeshow I just attended, Microsoft was even trying to enter the embedded field of industrial sensors, valve positioners, and motor control. We gave Microsoft a cold welcome to that news.

They even tried to illustrate the many advantages of a "plug and play" industrial network of valves and sensors.

:blink:

Ummmm .... thanks but we already have that with Foundation FieldBus. Go sell crazy somewhere else.

The day Microsoft tries to roll out something like an ORP sensor for a third stage PA in a petroleum cracker, I retire. Period.

 

Of course. It's an OBVIOUS contradiction to have an OS that is "easy" to use for most routine tasks, but has many hidden pitfalls and dangers.

I believe in Truth In Advertising: "When you purchase this low-ball Windows computer, you must also learn about virus, spam, worm, rootkit, and other hazards. You must invest in a "good" firewall and a router with NAT to hide your machine from obvious dangers. You must invest in a "good" anti-virus program and regularly update it, keeping in mind many updates may cause odd behavior, memory leaks, or the dreaded Stop message, eg IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or everybody's favorite PFN_LIST_CORRUPT. YMMV and if you have a problem TFB."

And given the declining education scores of the average American or Canadian, we can only expect these problems to get much worse in the future. Not like Asian competitors haven't noticed.

 

Dave:

I thought that too with my 2000 GMC Sierra SLT 4x4. But the honeymoon was over less than 2 weeks after I took delivery when I backed out of the garage and noticed the puddle of gear oil on the concrete. It went downhill from there.

jay

 

Half of this is because Microsoft XP doesn't officially support modern-day Bluetooth 1.1+.

I hope you're not depending on a 3rd party driver like say Widcomm, which was bought by Broadcom recently, and where the software probably hasn't been updated in a year plus since early 2004.

 

that statement was made to illustrate to pro-microsoft people who think windows is a good OS. as you well know, MS is not very good at what they do. but many who know nothing else cant believe that. if Toyota had never been allowed to prosper over here, the scenario above would have happened.

 

This is what I hate about Microsoft too. Every decent new software idea that SOMEONE ELSE has developed in the past 10-15 years has ended up being integrated into their OS, effectively cripling or killing the original developer. Its that "Walmart" mentality that they should be the ONLY software on your PC that I find aggravating. That, and the fact that I, as a computer builder/reseller, had to pay $90 a copy for the same OEM OS they gave Compac, Dell, or HP for only $40-$45. I'm glad I'm not in that business anymore! :angry:

 

Dave:

Same thing happened in the office today: all the machines are down. Our love affair with Microsoft was over after the first 3-4 months, and it has been downhill since. The company is seriously considering Linux (Eg Red Hat) at this point.

I kinda like being at work and NOT working!



jay

 

I'm an anti-Microsoft guy (usually) for a number of reasons. I suppose the chief one is Microsoft's extreme anti-consumer pro-DRM (digital rights management) stand on technology. They think they should have the right to control what you do with your computer. And these days in the US, they pretty much do have that right (thanks to congress).

They're a big supporter of software patents, which in my view (and many other people's) has been a disaster for innovation in software. Microsoft supports software patents because they have a lot of them, and because they can use them against competitors, especially the smaller ones who have small or non-existent patent portfolios. They also pioneered the "embrace and extend" assult on open standards so that they could take control of them.

But generally having a single company dominate a field is very bad for it. I would think even a Microsoft fan wouldn't like having Microsoft arrogantly dictate license terms to him knowing that they were pretty much the only game in town. Linux has been a boon to the whole industry, in my view. Competition is good, open standards are good.

 

Why should I? Why should I take the effort to get reasonably familiar with another OS (for which I HAVE actually dabbled into in the past...) only to limit myself when 90% of the market is MSFT, AND what I'm using does everything I need it to do, particularly well at that? I suppose in that respect, MSFT has done a good job, for (as I previously posted) I have 0, zip, nada, motivation to get "into" another OS. Read about my Ipod issue with Itunes, or the fact that you have to take that extra step to make sure various items are "compaitable" when it comes to other OS's...

As for examples, of course I'm not basing my opinion on ONE event. I've already given what, 3 various reasons why I don't like MAC/other OS's... I've no urge to convince you, or anyone else of that matter of anything. This thread is about why people hate MSFT so much, and I'm just stepping up and defending the fact that it has run spectacularly well for me through the years. <---- period :lol:

 

I, for one, am very happy for you that MS's steaming pile of CR4P is working so well for you.
May it continue to serve you flawlessly!