Microsoft has failed - Their actions erase any lingering doubt

Semiaccurate ^ | Nov 14, 2012 | Charlie Demerjian

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

XBox has been pretty good.

[Mr. K]

I agree 100%

I write software using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and have used Microsoft for over 2 decades

The debugger is a work of art (because they use it themselves)

[Wurlitzer]

“My next computer will not be using Microsoft Office.

I’ll be using “OpenOffice”.”

---

While I use both and promote OpenOffice frequently, there are a few bumps in the road. If I only had my choice of MS Access or ooBase, Access would win hands down. If it were not for a very active users forum ooBase might be unusable. Macros are just a step above hieroglyphics. Also ooBase does not allow VB to be used as a more feature rich user interface to the database. To be fair that is not OpenOffice’s fault but no VB->ooBase database file driver has been written and I don’t see that as OO’s responsibility.

I just got bit by a lack of a very useful feature in Calc. I had a bunch of columns with calculations based on values in other columns and when I inserted a row on my spreadsheet, it broke the order of the cells these calculations pointed to and all info past the insertion was wrong. Also inserting a column has a similar problem.

I have not checked if this problem extends to a 2nd worksheet in the same file with a cell link to another sheet. That could get very ugly.

A simple highlighting the offending rows/columns (250 of them) the Alt-E-I-D corrected it but had I not spotted this loss of function everything past the row insertion point would have been wrong.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A good amount of his commentary seems to be aimed at business pardners and software developers....so it is not very apparent to consumers as of yet.

But compared to Apple.....they are not doing very much...that is new, or innovative.

[Kirkwood]

I’ve been downloading older MS business and specialty solution software in the last 2 weeks just in case it disappears forever. Already many links are dead at the MS support site. Even though I’m mainly using Win7 64 bit, I’m collecting copies of all of the XP solutions that I still use on my older 32-bit computers. Some are very useful and yet never made it into Vista or Win7. It is a shame that a wonderful resource is crumbling apart. Part of the kiddiefication of MS.

[softwarecreator]

7: Doesn’t suck as bad as Vista

Seriously?  Windows 7 has been a total success on all levels.  I replaced XP with it and cannot be happier.  What do you hate about it ... other than the fact MS makes it?

[Dr. Sivana]

The problem is that if you are locked in with a choice of 100% Microsoft or 0% Microsoft, once someone goes, it isn’t a baby step, they are gone. Once you start using Google Docs and the related suites, you have no need for Office. That means you, or likely your company, saves several hundred dollars a head. No need for Office means no need for Exchange. No need for Exchange means no need for Windows Server. No need for Office means no need for Windows. Once the snowball starts rolling, it picks up speed a frightening pace. And that is where we are. The barriers to exit are now even more potent barriers to entry.

Every sentence in the above paragraph is untrue.

First, even though who go with, say, OpenOffice or Google Docs, will still need the full blown Microsoft version to communicate with the rest of the world. I say this as someone who oversaw IT within a company and kept it 80%WordPerfect, 10% MacOS, 10% Word.

There's plenty not to like about Microsoft, but other companies are not without their "treacle". Apple treats the corporate environment like gum on its shoe. A lot of important hardware does not have Linux drivers or worse, very poor ones. There are entire categories of software (ERP, for instance) where not only the best of breed, but the five or six best of breedrun either on Windows only or on a mainframe. The MS Exchange server coordinates with a lot more than MS Office and has features of its own that make it a viable choice, MS Office notwithstanding.

The fact is for a company that doesn't innovate, Microsoft still has the best of breed spreadsheet despite the #$%%^ ribbon, a word processor that works a lot better than the free competition for corporate purposes, two database packages that do well in their spaces (SQL Server and, still, Access, even though I greatly prefer FileMaker Pro), a very good (if corruptible) organizer/e-mail client with Outlook. Niche business products that are still top tier (Visio, Project), stuff that brings it all together, (e.g. Sharepoint), and a whole bunch of marginal and bad apps that still draw in support from consumers and businesses that don't want to spend more for a better product (Publisher, Expression).

The fact is that MS Office is actually priced competitively enough to lock out the next Lotus Office/Novell Office/Star Office. WordPerfect is relegated to niche player status for those who do heavier formatting or legal-oriented stuff, and the rest, which miss useful features, are free.

In the enterprise space, Microsoft is committed to providing server products and development tools that will keep it in play, because their developers' products HAVE been innovative and competitive. Yes, they try to corrupt every standard (HTML5, Java, XML) that comes along, but in the meantime they have built a loyal raft of programmers, and Microsoft is willing to mostly stay out of the hardware game, ensuring that there will be a very wide range of suitable computers for its products to run on.

They ain't dead, or close to it, in the corporate realm. Most of the other big players HAVE to do business with them. That's not a bad place to be.

[RightOnline]

A good buddy of mine (recently retired AF O-6) just bought a new HP laptop with Windows 8. We had breakfast the other day and he brought it along to show me. Boy, did he show me.

He HATES Win8, and now I see why. It’s the most miserable, clunky, UN-user-friendly P.O.S. of an OS I’ve ever seen (and I’ve been in the computer biz for nearly 30 years). Just jaw-droppingly stupid design. Try to do just simple things, I dare you. It is openly hostile to users with a mouse....yet touch versions (i.e. Ultrabooks) really aren’t out in volume yet. Even then, as the article points out, what enterprise is going to switch to an OS that is CLEARLY touch-centric?

Answer: None.

I’m sticking with Win7 Pro, which I happen to actually like.

[adorno]

Contradictory statements all over the place, like: Microsoft has failed

followed by:

Sooner or later, someone will come along and do a better job than the treacle that Microsoft, offers.

If MS has failed, then, "sooner or later" sounds like it hasn't happened. And in fact, it hasn't happened and is likely to never happen.

This is an article written by someone who absolutely hates Microsoft and would like nothing more to have it fail. This is an article where the author wishes to help make the failure happen, while at the same time, failing to point at all of the positives that Microsoft has going for it, like, the biggest variety of software on the planet, and the biggest user base on the planet, and the most used office package on the planet, and the most used OS on the planet, a huge presence on the internet with Bing and other major properties, a huge presence on the cloud with its many different services, a new OS for mobile platforms and which is, despite what the author above says, doing quite well in sales, and a new OS which (whether the author likes it or not) is being included with most new PC purchases and which is also very low cost for those who wish to upgrade from any previous Windows version.

MS is also the company with the mobile platform which threatens to take away huge sales from Android and Apple's mobile platforms, and that has already started to show in sales figures. What MS takes away in sales from Apple or Google, is something that will affect the bottom line of Apple and Google. Apple's outlook for sales have had to be lowered since Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT were released to market.

The author brags about the sales of WP8 being slow, but the strategy on he part of MS is not to make huge sales on a week-end and then brag about in on Monday to its user base, which is what Apple is all about. MS's strategy is long-term, and the figures they care about, are the ones reported on a quarterly basis. If weekly or monthly or quarterly figures were to be the determining factor for a failure, then MS would not have persisted in building its XBox system and the accompanying ecosystem.

The author of the piece above is one who wishes to see MS fail, and is divorced from the reality on the ground.

[Cyman]

” The apps use protocols that are locked down with dubious methods, and will not run on any competition. “

Sounds like Apple to me..

[Dr. Sivana]

If I only had my choice of MS Access or ooBase, Access would win hands down.

Check out Filemaker Pro.

[Lazamataz]

FedGov out my way uses MS. They actually prefer it because it is closed-source.

[kevkrom]

The difference is that Apple is a systems vendor, not a software vendor. Buying Apple means going in knowing that it’s a closed ecosystem to a large extent. In the iOS world, that control is absolute, though in the OS X line, you’re perfectly free to develop any application you want as long as you sell/distribute it on your own; API restrictions only apply to the Mac App Store.

[softwarecreator]

The author of the piece above is one who wishes to see MS fail, and is divorced from the reality on the ground.

MS haters have been predicting Microsoft's downfall since 1995, and yet, here they still are.  MS's marketshare will grow and shrink, like every business in history, yet they still are number one and likely to be that way for the forseeable future.

[asinclair]

Nobody ever got fired for specifying IBM

It wasn't that long ago that IBM held a lock on the computing industry. Then things started to slip...and slip...and now where are they? (I know, they sell "service" exclusively now.)

And Microsoft is going down the same chute, and for pretty much the same reasons. The second generation of computing monopoly is withering. Wonder who will pick up the gauntlet?

[adorno]

But compared to Apple.....they are not doing very much...that is new, or innovative.

Improving a product is not innovation. Changing the look of a product is not innovation.

Apple has not created anything new or innovative in the last 15 years of so. They can improve and give them new looks and perhaps even tweak a product to make it work a little bit better, but, innovation or creating anything new, is not what Apple is about.

So, can you name anything "new" that Apple has created? Fact is that, the iDevices which have Apple being so profitable, were all there before Apple took them and released them with improvements and with new marketing strategies. It's the marketing where Apple is superior to others, but even that is not helping them so much lately, where they've lost some $120 billion in market cap. The end of the "Apple is better" period is upon us, and Android and Microsoft are beginning to make Apple look to do different things, because, the 5-year headstart Apple had with the "newer" mobile platforms, now has a lot more competitors, with better products and services and lower prices.

[familyop]

But Microslut produced...marketing...lots of marketing...and lobbying...and lawsuits...and suits.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

At the moment he seems to be making his name with attacks on various management teams....

He lit up on AMD management a bit ago......

Found it.....

AMD is Imploding because Management doesn't understand semiconductors

[qam1]

Things that suck about Windows 7

No folder up button, annoying Ribbon/expolorer bar forced to use
Start Menu (or whatever it is called now) redesign sucks
No “Recent Documents” in Start Menu
Those Library folders suck
Search can't find anything (Bring back the dog)
Old programs still don't work
It is still bloatware

[for-q-clinton]

Try this and you’ll love it: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/download.asp

It adds the start button back and it adds a few other features. So you can have your regular interface but all the improvements in Win8 too. Don’t downgrade.