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An Open Letter to Microsoft: Re-Release Windows XP
Yahoo Tech (excerpt) ^ | February 28, 2007 | Christopher Null

Posted on 02/28/2007 6:51:50 PM PST by HAL9000

Excerpt -

Dear Mr. Gates, Mr. Ballmer, and the many good folks at Microsoft Corp.,

It's time to sober up on Windows Vista. This just isn't working out, and your users are getting frustrated to the point where they're souring on Windows altogether. In case you haven't seen some of the more noteworthy blog posts on this topic, I refer you to Chris Pirillo, Scot's Newsletter, or Spend Matters. Or check out the recent bug reports regarding product activation and security flaws. This is all stuff I managed to dredge up that was written yesterday.

People are unhappy with Vista. Really unhappy. And though I know Microsoft has its own form of Steve Jobs' reality distortion field, it certainly can't keep you from seeing at least some of the sobering sales figures and the crush of disappointing reviews of Vista. I don't want to dredge up all the reasons people are unhappy with Vista in this letter. I want to talk about what you ought to do stop a mass migration to Linux and the Mac.

~ snip ~


(Excerpt) Read more at tech.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: lowqualitycrap; microsoft; vista; windows; xp
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1 posted on 02/28/2007 6:51:52 PM PST by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000

I know of at least one very unhappy customer...a woman I work with just brought a new PC with Vista. Her printer doesn't work, and they told her she needs to buy a new one. It is a USB printer, only three years old. Granted, she could buy a new one for small money, but that isn't the point.

She was also angry because she got Office 2007, and her PC at work wouldn't open the files on things she worked on at home. I told her that was fixable, but she wasn't at all happy.


2 posted on 02/28/2007 6:58:02 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: rlmorel

BTW...I have heard that Office 2007 is pretty well done. This woman just had bad timing to have the Office issue while she was still irritated with the printer.


3 posted on 02/28/2007 7:00:16 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: HAL9000
In another development, the Apple fanboys demand a return the horse and carriage for everyone else apart from those who use Apple and Linux computers..
Hey, we have too much carbon emissions from cars, right?
4 posted on 02/28/2007 7:02:46 PM PST by ShawTaylor
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To: HAL9000

Hey, Microslop.

Don't bother. I think the Republic would be better served for you to avoid bothering.

Let a larger percentage of your beleagured and abuse customer base get their consciences raised much higher . . . about

how deeply, broadly and painfully they've been cheated, shredded, exasperated, robbed from, ignored, abused, hung out to dry, ran ragged . . .

all for greed, arrogance and no good reason.

Let a larger proportion of your customer serfs and slaves wake up more and realize that Linux is a lot more rational and about as user friendly already.

Some of us customers have the audacity to think that customers are to be treated with respect and SERVED vs abused and robbed from. Some of us have about had it up to the tops of our pointy heads and are increasingly not willing to take it any more.

Greedy arrogance is a poor business model for success. Extreme wealth and extreme aroogance may blunt the market place's correction for a long time. But eventually, you will reap the horrors you have so persistently sown.


5 posted on 02/28/2007 7:14:03 PM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; GOD ALONE PAID THE PRICE; GOD ALONE IS ABLE; LOVE GOD WHOLLY)
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To: ShawTaylor

I think you have Apple fanboys and Liberals mixed up again.

You really shouldn't do that. People who prefer the Mac OS come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

(But I do believe every terrorist computer captured so far has been a Windows PC.)


6 posted on 02/28/2007 7:26:27 PM PST by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: Quix

Puhlease, switching the masses to Linux would be a far worse headache for the masses than killing a major American company.

Vista is a very good OS, and the author of this article will be made to look like a fool in short time.


7 posted on 02/28/2007 7:36:00 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: aft_lizard

Microslop is LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGG

Overdue

to clean up it's expensive act.


8 posted on 02/28/2007 7:38:16 PM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; GOD ALONE PAID THE PRICE; GOD ALONE IS ABLE; LOVE GOD WHOLLY)
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To: aft_lizard

THEY HAVE THE BRAINPOWER. THEY HAVE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT MONEY.

Evidently their arrogance and their greed are all that stand in the way.

There's no excuse for that.

Microslop is LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGG

Overdue

to clean up it's expensive act.


9 posted on 02/28/2007 7:39:10 PM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; GOD ALONE PAID THE PRICE; GOD ALONE IS ABLE; LOVE GOD WHOLLY)
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To: Quix

Define expensive.

If expensive is getting a full featured OS that is easy to use and install with support and a cost structure that has actually decreased over the years, then perhaps you are right. Perhaps we should just eleminate the hundreds of thousand of jobs supported by this evil company and allow the wild west to ensue with an OS with a thousand different flavors and wild programs while scratching your head and wondering what you did wrong installing it because it wouldnt mount your drive, yeah thats the future. You can play crippled games on this new OS, no need to use the full features of the Video Card that was designed for that other OS, that is of course if you were lucky enough to choose a good version of this OS.


10 posted on 02/28/2007 7:48:27 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: ShawTaylor
Infoworld had an interesting article today - Every day, around 9,000 people switch to the Mac.

Vista is helping Mac OS X become more successful every day. Thanks Microsoft!

11 posted on 02/28/2007 7:57:38 PM PST by HAL9000 (Get a Mac - The Ultimate FReeping Machine)
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To: aft_lizard

Full featured?

More like full of buggs persistently for a long time. And that's not counting security flaws.

I can't think of a single year (out of what--10+?) as a faithful Microslop customer when I haven't been exasprated to the max every few weeks to every few months.

Most of the time there has been no viable solution and certainly not one within any reasonable cost constraints. Usually I just had to give up and come up with some convoluted enormously time wasting work around on my own.

Oh, when I've been able to spring for their expensive tech help--it's usually been competent and helpful. Though the India accent thing at a rapid fire rate on a pooor phone connection bout did me in once.

And their compulsion to gum up the works of 3rd party software vendors is really infuriating, morally outrageous, actually.

I have no need to destroy Microslop. I just want them to clean up their act. Give the customer more of a fair value and better support for their money.

They could have a LOT better automated support than they do. a LOT better.

No excuse for not having it, imho.


12 posted on 02/28/2007 7:58:44 PM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; GOD ALONE PAID THE PRICE; GOD ALONE IS ABLE; LOVE GOD WHOLLY)
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To: Quix

The only OS of Microsofts I would consider a failure would be WinME. Otherwise the only errors I have had are errors caused by me and 99% of the time I am able to fix it w/o doing much if anything to my OS.

Microsoft is cheap when compared to Apple, which if you want to go Apple you simply cant just pop in an OS and reformat your HDD you have to buy the whole system, hey and lets not forget if there is an update you have to pay for it, not with Windows you just download the SP1's or 2's.Heck to upgrade to Win95 when it came out was $109, same with Win98, but Vista Basic is only $99 and the only thing you sacrifice is eyecandy and MCE, wich was a seperate more expensive version for XP.

Vista itself is not buggy, not in the least, You will hear stories about compatibility's but thats an issue with hardware manufacturers not updating there drivers.

If you had to upgrade your hardware to use a new OS chances are you would have had to in order to use any program you planned on using in the future anyways, so an upgrade is/was a waist of money for you if you want to look at it that way.

I could go on but I have to get up early.


13 posted on 02/28/2007 8:12:27 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: HAL9000

I highly doubt an OS that just got released has any effect on past sales numbers for Apple. Its also extra funny since PC sales with Vista are way up.


14 posted on 02/28/2007 8:15:13 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: HAL9000
9,000 people "switch over to the Mac" every day huh?
Well we have 665 mln(74.3%) copies of XP installed worldwide, and another 190 mln units of other Windows(21.6%) installed wordwide, making 855 million (95.9%) Windows PC's installed and actively used worldwide.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/index.php?paged=7

Best of luck catching up at that "9000" per day rate.

BTW, your link is to a guy that is talking baloney.
Just listen to this bit:

"By my calculations, based on Steve Jobs’ claim that half of all Macs are sold to first-time buyers, roughly 9,000 people switch to the Mac every day"

I am like, huh?
Is this supposed to be reliable figures, hot air or pure wishful thinking?
15 posted on 02/28/2007 8:28:02 PM PST by ShawTaylor
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To: aft_lizard

Thanks for your perspective.

Alternate reality checks are good.


16 posted on 02/28/2007 8:36:55 PM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; GOD ALONE PAID THE PRICE; GOD ALONE IS ABLE; LOVE GOD WHOLLY)
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To: aft_lizard
"Vista itself is not buggy, not in the least, You will hear stories about compatibility's but thats an issue with hardware manufacturers not updating there drivers."

Are you still in college? Because you aren't in a secure workplace. VPN's DO NOT WORK with Vista. Do you even know what that means?

Vista isn't backwards compatible. It won't run ACT! It won't run "Windows" video games.

The printer driver issues are tame...minor in the grand scheme of the massive Vista failures (e.g. modem driver failures).

Vista isn't failing like Windows ME...it's failing like DOS 4.0.

Once you give up backwards compatibility, customers have no further need of new versions of Windows OS's.

GAME
OVER

17 posted on 02/28/2007 8:37:27 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: aft_lizard
Microsoft is cheap when compared to Apple,

The cost of the initial purchase for a Mac is higher sometimes, but you get better hardware with more features. The expense of operating a Mac is cheaper than Windows after the cost of PC repairs, anti-virus subscriptions, etc. is factored in. And the resale value of Macs is better than PCs. Overall, Macs are a better investment.

which if you want to go Apple you simply cant just pop in an OS and reformat your HDD you have to buy the whole system,

Actually, you can just pop in OS like Windows or Linux on a Mac. Macs can run more operating systems that ordinary PCs.

hey and lets not forget if there is an update you have to pay for it, not with Windows you just download the SP1's or 2's.

Sorry, but you are misinformed on that. Apple has issued eight free updates to the current operating system (from 10.4.0 to 10.4.8) - plus several free security updates - plus numerous free application updates for iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, QuickTime, Safari, iChat, Dashboard, etc.

And let's not forget that Microsoft is very slow to release updates. Will they get SP1 for Vista released before Christmas? Who knows?

Apple will charge for the next major update - Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") - but it will probably cost less than Vista Home Premium upgrade. And they will have a five-user family pack, probably for $199 - much cheaper than Vista.

18 posted on 02/28/2007 8:37:52 PM PST by HAL9000 (Get a Mac - The Ultimate FReeping Machine)
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To: HAL9000

Why would they have to re-release something that is still in print and for sale? Last time I looked you could still buy Windows 2000. (that may be gone by now, but I looked less than a year ago.)


19 posted on 02/28/2007 8:40:41 PM PST by js1138 (The absolute seriousness of someone who is terminally deluded.)
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To: aft_lizard

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=10
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6162313.html
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1743/vista_bug_cannot_connect_web_sites
http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6432317
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=402


20 posted on 02/28/2007 8:46:03 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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