Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 58

Thread: Do you hate Microsoft? I wonder why.

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Adelaide, South Australia
    Posts
    138

    Do you hate Microsoft? I wonder why.

    Let me be upfront. I don't mind Microsoft at all.

    I'm sure this topic has been argued too many times already but I keep reading about people who hate Microsoft so I thought I'd offer a personal perspective.

    After reading this article by Alex Osipov over at Acky.net called "Microsoft and the Mob Mentality" I'm inclined to agree with his point of view (in that most of us tech types owe much of our living to Microsoft products - either developing, supporting or using) and I truly have to wonder why people hate Microsoft SO much. I mean crickey's, lighten up a little guys.

    I know Microsoft's not perfect but if you choose to read on I will tell you how Microsoft helped me...

    For 15 years I was a boilermaker/welder until I finally got sick of coughing up someone else’s fumes. I looked around my life for a new direction and found that there was (supposedly - which is whole other story) a shortage of I.T. staff not only in Australia but the whole planet generally.

    Being a PC home user I thought I might have some skills in this area already and so enquired about courses etc. After many calls to recruiting agencies and I.T. firms I found out that employers look for Certification as a means of judging your initial skill level.

    Long story short, I borrowed some money and did a few courses. Studying for hours on end at home on-line and off until I had a few Microsoft cert exams under my belt (Networking Essentials - invaluable for those who are only roughly sure how a network operates and NT4 workstation) and after 2 attempts each (and quite a few months intense study) I passed my exams and became an MCP.

    I went out and got some work experience to prove myself and managed to get a few contracts in user support/help desk environments. Now I have a full time permanent position with a global soft drink company in their Business Information Systems Support group as a support technician and my wages are higher than I would ever have achieved in the metal trade. BTW this company really looks after it's employees and the benefits include MCSE training (W2K) to mention just one.

    Microsoft gave me a path to enrich my life (indirectly - as I did most of the work myself I suppose). I took it and now my life is better. Some may argue that if MS OS didn't have so many errors then I wouldn't have a job but I will dismiss this as most of the problems are user created ("I don't know, I click anything - add more RAM?") and/or configuration based.

    I'm not interested in starting an OS/Platform war here but I did want to say that I am one guy who thanks Microsoft for changing my life (it could have just as easily been Novell, Cisco, or- and who here would still have a job if all Microsoft products where removed from the picture?

    I'm not being naive and I know that there are many good alternatives to Microsoft (and the best part is that they are free for the most part) so why do people insist on using MS products? Because they perform most of the functions required by most of the people nearly all of the time. It's a matter of degree.

    Is good enough, good enough? In most cases people decide that it is.

    My point? Good enough is sometimes good enough and in many cases ideal and in my case it has improved my life in so many ways I start to get a bit defensive about it.

    Ok, you can all let me have it now but please keep the abuse to a minimum and make sure you read the article at the beginning of this post first as he articulates his argument better than I have.

    Bill
    MCP

    Edited for grammar, spelling and clarity only.
    Last edited by BITM@D; 09-26-2001 at 07:00 AM.

  2. #2
    I glad you are happy and feel MS rules but it sound like you don't love computers but just looking for a job and make a good leaving of it

    That is not why , there is a fight between OS, it's about Deeply loving PC world and what you can do with it.

    find, you love MS and you decide to stay blind about your freedom, the world won't change and in anycase, either you and me are not solving the fight


  3. #3
    Member t048's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    197
    First off, let me preface this by saying that I'm really indifferent to MS. I do not like their products, though. I am very sick and tired of having those products forced at me all the time. That is why I oppose MS so much is because with out resistance, they would have taken over the entire globe by now.

    Anyway, Microsoft did not change your life, you did! If MS didn't exist, would you still be a welder? Not likely. You'd probably have gotten another computer job.

    Despite popular opinion, Microsoft is not computing. Computers existed before Microsoft and they will continue to exist after microsoft. Don't be sucked in by the hype.

  4. #4
    Good Point T048
    Very good Point

  5. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Adelaide, South Australia
    Posts
    138

    Wrong.

    Whackerland, I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion but...

    The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is switch on my PC.

    The first thing I do when I get home from work is switch on my PC.

    The last thing I do before I go to sleep is - you guessed it - switch off my PC.

    I live eat breathe and sleep PC. I extol the virtues of the PC and the Internet at every opportunity and to whom ever will listen. I love my job (a lot) and I love computing.

    I help people for hours on end with their PC's and I love modifying PC's.

    I don't LOVE Microsoft I use it as a tool towards an end. I am aware that Microsft rules - I don't think it. But if it didn't do what I needed it to do I wouldn't have any time for it all.

    "you decide to stay blind about your freedom". Where do you get this from? No I don't. I choose from what's available. I consider the costs and make my decision. At least I don't base my decision on blind hate to the exclusion of my needs.

  6. #6
    Member Solidus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    196
    It's like illegal drugs. the source is not the drug dealers, but citezens who use these drugs. as long as there is a demand, there will always be drug dealers, no matter how much governmets waste on finding these dealers. to eradicate drugs, people must be educated about its harm and taught how to live without it, through counceling or clinics. the same can be said about microsoft. I propose we make a microsoft clinic to help poeple break the adiction. Home users should understand that there is more to a computer than point and click.

  7. #7
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    125
    t048:
    ...will continue to exist after microsoft.
    will there be such thing? guess only time will tell!!

    cya!

  8. #8
    Ultimate Member smokin1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 1999
    Location
    North end of the Mojave
    Posts
    1,016
    Well..I for one think that Microsoft has been unreal in bringing computing to the massses. I find it hard to believe that all the MS naysayers don't run it..LOL. It's easy to diss a big corporation..but when you are building software for the masses..you have to include ease of use (some call it lamer support..I don't)..and that's where the bugs arise...for that OS.. I have found no real problems with using MS..and in the end most problems come down to the life form at the keyboard. I run a number of machines and various operating systems..but for bringing computing to the "everyperson"..gender corrected..please..let's give credit where it is due....No matter what OS is in use..there will always be the need for support..no one can convince me that the alternative OS's aren't without their problems..because it just ain't so..all OS's have bugs..and problems..it's the nature of the beast. Also..IMHO the surge of Linux lately has been fueled by the addition of Windows-like GUI's..what does that do?...adds ease of use (read lamer support)...I have no crusade here..but I do believe that if MS is sooo bad..why does 90% ( a guesstimate) of the people at this forum use it? The vast majority of users want to click and be sated..Cheers MS!

  9. #9
    Ultimate Member otheos's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 1999
    Location
    Cardiff, Wales, UK
    Posts
    2,531
    I am glad your life has turned to a better one. But the credit goes to you! You were the one who did the change.

    As for MS, I understand that you attribute to them the popularity of the desktop PC and hence the opportunity you grabbed.

    However, do you think that if it wasn't for MS, the desktop PC would not existed? NO WAY!

    Someone else would have got it, be it Apple or a unix based desktop system (like Linux is today).

    Computers would end up in homes anyway. MS was the one who succeded in doing it. What most people oppose is the way it did it (from the start -see code steeling) untill today.

    What most people are against is the limit of choice, and the limit of freedom and privacy in your own PC. This is why people look to open source because it is more than an OS, it is an idea (like democracy is not just a political system it is an idea, a way of living).

    I dare to oppose MS to a monarchy and open source to a democracy. Given the history of the PC we still live in the middle ages.

  10. #10
    Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Adelaide, South Australia
    Posts
    138
    Someone else would have got it, be it Apple or a unix based desktop system (like Linux is today).
    I agree. I would have been just as enthusiastic no matter who developed it (desktop PC) and I am roughly aware of the history and the alternatives. I don't know Bill Gates (although to my amazement his office did ring me when I complained about Sylvan Prometric in an email addresed to him {billgates@microsft.com} - another story) and so I have no loyalty to him personally.

    I just find Windows easy to use and yes it has opened doors for me that any OS would have, had it been lucky enough to be in MS's position.

    Thanks to those who commented about my effort.

    My advice: Do something that you love for a living and you'll never work a day in your life. That about sums up my situation at the moment and I feel very lucky for it. Now, how could I pay out on MS after their product was so intricately involved in the changing of my life?

  11. #11
    Member cadetstimpy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Oceanside CA
    Posts
    450
    Maybe it's not that I hate Microsoft, but that I have to work with it every day all day. Gotta vent - it happens in every feild:

    until I finally got sick of coughing up someone elses fumes
    Give it some time...you'll see that Microsoft can be quite similar to metal work

  12. #12
    Middle Age Member
    Join Date
    May 1999
    Posts
    3,295

    It's OKAY not to use Microsoft...

    As a matter of fact I'm not using Microsoft right now...

    No worries to you MATE, there's a new law in the works that will make most Linux applications illegal in the United States -if it passes.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21830.html

    Picture a future where distributing Linux is a crime punishable by a hefty fine and a prison sentence. If that sounds ridiculous, then you haven't run into the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act. It's the very latest - and most bizarre - word in political back-scratching from one of South Carolina's U.S. senators. And he'd rather not talk about it, thank you very much.
    Last edited by CMonster; 09-26-2001 at 04:13 AM.

  13. #13
    Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Adelaide, South Australia
    Posts
    138
    Similar to welding. God I hope not!

    I think that welding gave me plenty of perspective to work with.

    I wear trousers and a shirt instead of overalls. I don't have to start at 7am on any morning let alone a freezing cold one. I don't have ringing in my ears and grinding dust in my eyes. The conversation doesn't revolve around somebody's breasts (as is so common in blue collar lunchrooms) and is more like the conversation we are having right now - only live. The bandwidth can't be beat and most people (users) are very glad to see me.

    All I could think of while working as a welder was what excuse I could use to be absent from work. Now, I actually don't mind going to work and that's obviously a blessing. Microsoft or not.

  14. #14
    I don't like Ms too
    You know, in this kind of discussion - there is no winners

    Somebody will say I'm for MS
    The other one will be Linux
    or SOLARIS

    and at the end, nobody change his mind!

    You want to know what I hate!
    People who has a MCSE cert. and don't know any *deleted* . of course they also claim big salary, that is B*deleted* for Me.

    This year, I did interview at least 50 MCSE and hired none, finally found a young Linux fella who did pass the MCSE cert. and knows what is talking about, what a relief

    Do not use profanity in these forums! SysOpt.com Forum FAQ - Policies
    Last edited by Fingers; 09-26-2001 at 04:38 AM.

  15. #15
    Middle Age Member
    Join Date
    May 1999
    Posts
    3,295
    Asked some computer "experts" what came to his mind when I say 3F8 - most replied, "What? 3F -what?"

    The conversation doesn't revolve around somebody's breasts (as is so common in blue collar lunchrooms)
    -hey, I work with those guys...

    Seriously though, you are unfairly sterotyping the working class -we are not all that bad.

    How big is your HARD drive? How fast is your CPU...

    I have this big old floppy, bigger than 5-1/4" and it automatically reconfigures itself into a big hard drive, but then it soils all the software and reverts back to a floppy... what's a boy to do?
    Last edited by CMonster; 09-26-2001 at 04:23 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •