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I use Mac so i DON'T have to use M$ products. What a farce!!
The killer Windows app
#29
captvanhalen 
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Posted 27 May 2008 - 08:38 AM
MultiQuote
#30
whitedog
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Posted 27 May 2008 - 01:17 PM
Complaints from disappointed Windows users like Herkimer are far more telling than the usual Mac fan diatribe. Their opinions are based on extensive experience with Microsoft products rather than the emotional, identity based feelings of the Mac zealot. Clearly Microsoft is doing more to alienate their loyal users and drive them to the Mac (and Linux) than any Mac switcher campaign could possibly do.
From Herkimer's description, Microsoft's pattern is to lose interest in a product after it's gone to market. As a result, their programs seldom mature, lingering forever in an unfinished state. There are some exceptions to this tendency: Windows XP has improved and stabilized over the years, so much so that users have badgered MS into continuing to sell and support it long after they would have preferred to move consumers on to Vista. But Vista has been a flop as far as customer satisfaction is concerned and this has breathed new life into XP. The only reason Vista is selling as well as it is, is because MS has coerced their hardware partners into installing only Vista on new computers. Thus the relative success of Vista is a result of market manipulation rather than product quality or popularity. For Microsoft, this is business as usual. It apparently never occurs to them that if they simply designed a decent product in the first place they wouldn't have to resort to bully tactics to artificially inflate sales.
On the Mac we are used to 1.0 software releases being buggy and incomplete, but we expect developers to fix the problems and refine the interface. This includes, but is not limited to, Apple itself. Mac fans are not shy about highlighting product deficiencies, as happened with the transparent menu bar, inadequate Stacks features and awkward access to Time Machine in the initial release of Leopard. It took Apple only a month or two to fix these problems in response to the very public raspberries they received.
Compare that to Vista which is only now due to receive a significant upgrade, more than a year after its release. And news from beta testers doesn't look promising for actual, visible improvement in what ails the "new" OS.
It's hard to avoid the impression that Microsoft is well past its prime, making money on momentum alone rather than product quality and innovation. The recent Service Pack 3 update for Windows XP emphatically emphasizes this point. They must continue to support their "vintage" OS because it's the best they have and their clients really are demanding it be maintained.
No doubt it galls Microsoft. They have to distribute resources to maintain XP, repair Vista and at the same time develop the rumored Windows 7, the role and nature of which no one seems to know, beyond the fact that MS has something in the oven. It adds new meaning to the truism, you reap what you sow.
From Herkimer's description, Microsoft's pattern is to lose interest in a product after it's gone to market. As a result, their programs seldom mature, lingering forever in an unfinished state. There are some exceptions to this tendency: Windows XP has improved and stabilized over the years, so much so that users have badgered MS into continuing to sell and support it long after they would have preferred to move consumers on to Vista. But Vista has been a flop as far as customer satisfaction is concerned and this has breathed new life into XP. The only reason Vista is selling as well as it is, is because MS has coerced their hardware partners into installing only Vista on new computers. Thus the relative success of Vista is a result of market manipulation rather than product quality or popularity. For Microsoft, this is business as usual. It apparently never occurs to them that if they simply designed a decent product in the first place they wouldn't have to resort to bully tactics to artificially inflate sales.
On the Mac we are used to 1.0 software releases being buggy and incomplete, but we expect developers to fix the problems and refine the interface. This includes, but is not limited to, Apple itself. Mac fans are not shy about highlighting product deficiencies, as happened with the transparent menu bar, inadequate Stacks features and awkward access to Time Machine in the initial release of Leopard. It took Apple only a month or two to fix these problems in response to the very public raspberries they received.
Compare that to Vista which is only now due to receive a significant upgrade, more than a year after its release. And news from beta testers doesn't look promising for actual, visible improvement in what ails the "new" OS.
It's hard to avoid the impression that Microsoft is well past its prime, making money on momentum alone rather than product quality and innovation. The recent Service Pack 3 update for Windows XP emphatically emphasizes this point. They must continue to support their "vintage" OS because it's the best they have and their clients really are demanding it be maintained.
No doubt it galls Microsoft. They have to distribute resources to maintain XP, repair Vista and at the same time develop the rumored Windows 7, the role and nature of which no one seems to know, beyond the fact that MS has something in the oven. It adds new meaning to the truism, you reap what you sow.
#31
captvanhalen
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Posted 27 May 2008 - 01:25 PM
"
Like it or not, the fact that you can do this on a Mac in today's
environment means many more people can now actually use a Mac instead
of a Windows PC"
Yeah, but you are still using a M$ product. I'd rather have a solution that leaves them out of this picture completely.
Like it or not, the fact that you can do this on a Mac in today's
environment means many more people can now actually use a Mac instead
of a Windows PC"
Yeah, but you are still using a M$ product. I'd rather have a solution that leaves them out of this picture completely.
#32
George3
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Posted 02 June 2008 - 06:28 AM
Microsoft is a perfect example of "The Devil You Know".
The mind set that if you don't have Office on your computer somehow means that you are not computer savvy or professional is astounding to me. As a graphic artist I simply can NOT justify the extremely high cost of Office to open one or two documents a week - and copy text out of them.
So far Text Edit it a workable solution. Anything that doesn't make it through that application and I tell the client they need to send it a different way. I don't own Office.
The mind set that if you don't have Office on your computer somehow means that you are not computer savvy or professional is astounding to me. As a graphic artist I simply can NOT justify the extremely high cost of Office to open one or two documents a week - and copy text out of them.
So far Text Edit it a workable solution. Anything that doesn't make it through that application and I tell the client they need to send it a different way. I don't own Office.
#33
wayofthefuture
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Posted 02 July 2008 - 03:17 AM
Quite a good article I think, probably more intended for people who are buried deep in the MS Office world who want to use their Mac at work but also want to comfortably fit into the workplace by having 100% compatibility and usability with all their colleges, that is how it is for me anyway with my MBP, and I still can be the Mac Fanboy at work! By the way, the director of the company I work in uses a MacBook Pro as well and does the same as myself, great minds must think different!
