What is Digg?Sponsored by Threadless
146 Comments
- noahhoward, on 03/03/2008, -14/+58Microsoft, here's some free advice. Fix your main products, now; fix your business model and learn to compete on quality and features. They've got real good at releasing things that look like the competition but still work like the same old crap. IE7, Vista, Media Center, they all could have been great, but the user experience is *****.
- TGMD, on 03/03/2008, -10/+35Yeah.... so did Apple's Mac... and Netscape... and lotus 123...
Wait a minute! - thinkharderest, on 03/03/2008, -2/+24OR msn search Halo edition.
- spyrochaete, on 03/03/2008, -11/+33That gave me a good chuckle. Got any other good jokes? Opera wins the browser war? AOL is elected best ISP of the 2008?
- orxor, on 03/03/2008, -4/+25Again? How many times did they say this already? I guess the 50th time's the charm, eh Microsoft?
- MioTheGreat, on 03/03/2008, -7/+20Wait. You're saying something bad about MEDIA CENTER?
I'm used to the baseless Vista hatred on here, but I've actually seen Apple users grudgingly admit how good Media Center is. - DMin, on 03/03/2008, -6/+17Buried for use of "Microsoft's [insert app or device here] killer".
- neocognitism, on 03/03/2008, -20/+30Uh huh, I'm sure it's on the way, just like it was before, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that.
Microsoft. We have the cash, so won't you bring us something great that we can call our own and ruin? - noahhoward, on 03/03/2008, -2/+11Vista has not crushed OSX by any stretch of the imagination. Where in your mind does pre-installing an OS on all new PCs and actually having to offer a downgrade license class as crushing a competitor OS that your own customers are buying an expensive new computer to get? I'm sorry but if you crap in a dell and charge me for it as a requirement you haven't made a sale, you've just lost a customer.
- Bizarrkley, on 03/03/2008, -3/+12...and DOS
- Hangly, on 03/03/2008, -3/+11Why doesn't Microsoft worry about it's desktop OS business first?
- MioTheGreat, on 03/03/2008, -9/+17OSX and Linux are taking over the desktop?
Both combined still have smaller market share than Vista, which was apparently a 'failure' from what I read on digg. If Vista is what happens when Microsoft 'fails', then I'd hate to see what happens to the competition when they succeed. - noahhoward, on 03/03/2008, -8/+15Well scratch your first example off, their head start was lost by poor leadership not an inferior product, now they've got a leader back at the helm and they're making converts. Meanwhile Microsoft's products have lost their luster and seem to struggle to keep up with agile open-source products and with more open business practices. Their two flagship products Windows and IE have both stumbled in the past years and they're scrambling to send competition out against the products their competitors are putting out. If money, rather than timing, was the deciding factor, Zune would have crushed iPod, Vista would have crushed OS X and MSN would be crushing Google.
Microsoft needs to learn quality, ease of use and price are the determining factor, not how many boxes you can preload your ***** on. Unfortunately for Microsofts old business model, Joe User has learned how to uninstall. - duffbluff, on 03/03/2008, -3/+10Microsoft... you truly are revolutionary. In the mean time... I'll just use OpenOffice with the google docs plugin.
Maybe by the time they release it I can save up the $400 dollars for what I am doing right now for free. - israelanderson, on 03/03/2008, -22/+29Microsoft is going the way of the Dodo. OS X and Linux are taking over the desktop and devices, Google and Adobe will lead apps.
- NebCanuck, on 03/03/2008, -4/+10Honestly, Microsoft can go right ahead. Having multiple major giants is way better than having a monopoly. If Microsoft and Google keep one another in check and force the other to continue innovating, that's a lot better than Microsoft going extinct by me!
- jvonbokel, on 03/03/2008, -3/+9"I'd hate to see what happens to the competition when they succeed."
See Netscape Communications Corp. - jopjop, on 03/03/2008, -5/+10Wasn't it Microsoft who had the huge head start...and has been cocking things up every since?
- one1plus1one, on 03/03/2008, -1/+6Sorry, as much as you folks might hate Microsoft (and I agree with a lot of the hate)... but Media Center kicks ass.
Media Center has kicked ass since the Windows XP edition. I've had it hooked up to cable and running on the kitchen table for 3 years now. I can't live without it.
My friends and family who knew nothing about computers loved it when I showed them media center. In fact my parents bought a computer after I showed them Media Center -- for that reason alone.
The only criticism I have about Media Center is this: They have one good consumer level product and they can't manage to properly advertise and promote it?
I had to do their advertising for them to my friends. It shouldn't be that way. Everyone should know about media center the way everyone knows about the IPOD, or the Mac commercials. - EntropyFan, on 03/03/2008, -0/+5Funny, when I hear 'it just wasn't intuitive and in my mind' I often see a person who went in expecting a bad experience, and made a bad experience happen.
Be it they don't like a vendor or whatever, they want it to be bad, and they make it so.
I've done Media center setups a lot, and calling 'over complex' (when the setup goes right) is like telling the nurse it doesn't matter what your blood type is, just shove any old needle in. They are asking questions for a reason.
'built with usage in mind' means being able to use it. If you don't ask the user, the user will sometimes get what they don't expect, which is worse - aceslick911, on 03/03/2008, -4/+9THE HELL?
- oxdeltaxo, on 03/03/2008, -0/+4When all they do is recycling the same ideas over and over it's not hard to imagine Microsoft as a sausage factory.
- Frozen, on 03/03/2008, -0/+4Only thing Microsoft is capable of killing these days is itself. They can only leverage unfair practices with it's OS and threaten competition with no support of OS if any competitive software is running within it. Microsoft just sucks, and creates more harm than good. They are not cool, Bill gates does give lots of money to great causes, but the company and its business practices are immoral.
- spyrochaete, on 03/03/2008, -3/+7This actually reminds me of a KFC commercial I saw once. A chicken sandwich has both bread and chicken. Would you rather buy a chicken sandwich from a chicken restaurant or a bakery?
I expect great things from MS as they add web functionality to their decades-old Office suite. Google has a hell of a long way to go before anyone takes their web office suite seriously. - inactive, on 03/03/2008, -2/+6of course it'll surpass osx's install base, but that doesn't "crush" anything, look at how many companies went back to xp after dealing that pos after a week, and just look at how many people won't even have vista installed on their new pc.
- Intensity, on 03/03/2008, -0/+4@ MioTheGreat
Surpassing the install base is only relevant to each respective product. How many XP users upgraded to Vista compared to how many OS9 users upgraded to OS10 is more relevant, or for a more recent comparison how many 10.4 users upgraded to 10.5 . - gluecode, on 03/03/2008, -1/+5This article was practically blank. I did not get any new info. The Ballmer comment was vague did not make any sense. Buried.
- cpanic, on 03/03/2008, -2/+6Instead of Microsoft trying to play catchup to Google web application-wise, perhaps they should focus on what really makes Google great -- it's attitude towards putting customers first ('Don't be evil").
- noahhoward, on 03/03/2008, -0/+4No you're referring to Jethro User, he's a bit behind Joe.
- SSUK, on 03/03/2008, -2/+5Well, that's your opinion, not fact. I enjoy Vista and Media Centre's user experience, it's all easy to use. I don't use IE7, so I can't comment on it's user experience.
- SSUK, on 03/03/2008, -2/+5Linux has a long way to go before it's as user friendly as Windows and until then, Linux is the refuge for computer nerds.
- SSUK, on 03/03/2008, -3/+6Protip: Digg has a large Apple fanbase and nerds who hate Windows even though they use it every day and wouldn't think of switching to Linux or OSX.
- israelanderson, on 03/03/2008, -4/+7Looks like the Iraqi Information minister found himself a new job.
- inactive, on 03/03/2008, -4/+7why digg neocog down? he's figured out the MS business plan
- ElbertF, on 03/03/2008, -0/+3Google is an app/device called Android?
- TechCF, on 03/03/2008, -3/+6He is right. From having 7 windows machines at home, I know have 0 (zero). OSX on my laptop (linux not good enough) and GF has an iMac. Linux on the firewall, workstation and fileserver.
Google Apps for Your Domain customer and I use a lot of the [bloated] Adobe software. Almost no MS software is used, exceptions are Flip4Mac and Live/MSN Messenger. - SSUK, on 03/03/2008, -3/+6Live Search that actually finds what I want would be nice.
- spyrochaete, on 03/03/2008, -0/+3Wake me when OSL is available on PC hardware in the year 2945. Apple screwed themselves over 20 years ago when they decided to limit the OS to Apple brand hardware and they've piggishly stuck by that mistake. If you think the majority of Windows users are going to throw their old computers in the garbage and buy Mac hardware in the next 18 months you're, um, a colourful character.
- jopjop, on 03/03/2008, -0/+3And would you predict that their market share will grow from "90%" or continue to shrink?
- spyrochaete, on 03/03/2008, -1/+4Golly gee, I was just about to buy MS Office for my 1000 seat infrastructure, but then you reminded me of Microsoft's failings in their video games division. Thanks so much for your advice in enterprise information worker solutions.
- inactive, on 03/03/2008, -4/+7As its the fastest growing MP3 player in the market? Yep that seems to be working out very well for them. They have had only 2 years and made a substatial dent in the ipod market. This isnt conjecture this is fact. So good point!
- FKnight, on 03/03/2008, -0/+3I'm not sure operating system usage statistics from TechCF's house are a valid measure of whether Apple and Linux are "taking over."
- SPThom, on 03/03/2008, -3/+6I didn't even have to look at the address to know this was coming from News.com. Seriously, are they *owned* by Microsoft or something? They're the most anti-Google, pro-Microsoft website I've ever read.
- noahhoward, on 03/03/2008, -1/+4Mio, slow to adopt is not the same as stepping back. The fact is they weren't slow to adopt, they adopted almost immediately and found they had to go back.
- spyrochaete, on 03/03/2008, -2/+5Both OpenOffice and Google Docs screw up formatting of many MS Office files. If you're talking about private home use then that's no problem, but if you use it in the business world your partners will seriously wonder why you're unwilling to use the industry standard software. That $400 will have saved you money the by the second time you have to reformat documents in OpenOffice to match the source file your business contact sent you originally.
I speak from experience. Your mileage may vary. Penny wise, pound foolish. ___ is free if your time is worthless. - malcolmlo, on 03/03/2008, -1/+3There is one major problem for google:
Microsoft already has a stranglehold on the office apps market.
That being said, unfortunately it doesnt really matter if google did it first. 90% of all desktop users and corporate environments use Microsoft Office. So microsoft can take their sweet time, as usual, and even produce an inferior product, again as usual, and still hold the majority of the market share.
Bottom line: getting whole organizations and the majority of personal users to stop using microsoft office and start using google apps is a VERY big challenge. Not impossible, but the odds are stacked against google. - tdominey, on 03/03/2008, -1/+3The days when "Microsoft / killing [fill in the blank]" headlines had any relevance are long, long gone.
- BJLStorm, on 03/03/2008, -0/+2Stick to fixing Vista first.
- Fartag, on 03/03/2008, -0/+2OpenOffice is free, it can be installed right along with MS Office, so any industry can now support a gradual transition away from closed industry "standards" for free. Use odt and doc for example. If Microsoft is successful in that there are "formatting issues" binding people to their software, then these can transition when the cost of doing so is lower than cost of maintaining the dependency.
It would take an unusually dedicated fan of Microsoft to choose to lock themselves into a _new_ codependency with Microsoft when better options for a company are on the table. - spyrochaete, on 03/03/2008, -0/+2The issue is that "industry" isn't made up of an unrelated bunch of companies; those companies interoperate symbiotically. They need to be able to communicate with each other effortlessly. Training all the information users in the world on a new software platform is not the most economical way to do business, so that's why they're content with the Microsoft lock-in.
You bring up a perfectly valid argument, though, and I dugg you for it. MS Word wasn't really the de facto standard until email became prevalent. Before that people used WordPerfect, WordStar, Lotus, or whatever software best met their needs. Even though MS Word is robust enough to write, design, and publish an entire book, it's become sufficiently globally standardized that even secretaries use it for simple tasks. In truth, maybe 2% of information workers need half the functionality that Word offers, but 98% of them use it anyway for the sake of uniformity and streamlined training. -
Show 51 - 100 of 147 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is