[LINK] How can Microsoft stop us hating them?

[Richard Chirgwin]

Stil,

I would answer 'probably nothing', but not for the reason you might 
expect ...

My irritations don't only stem from Microsoft's position, but from a 
more general and growing impression that 'all software sucks'. So 
Microsoft isn't the sole target of my detestation.

I've been a Mac user for some years now, because my employer uses Macs - 
very nice ones, too: usually any new purchase is the current top 
specification.

But what can Apple stop me hating them? - as well as Microsoft, since 
Office is inescapable.

The answer for both companies has to be "stop inflicting me with 
software that sucks"; followed shortly by "stop forcing me to do things 
*your* way just because a designer somewhere has an unshakeable faith 
that he/she knows better than I do how things should work." And 
following on from that, stop taking away features that I use, just 
because they were somehow inconsistent with what the designer wanted.

Software that sucks: Apple mythology is that Macs don't crash. Bollocks. 
The number of times that various apps - not just MS - spin the beach 
ball at me before disappearing entirely is completely out of hand. Since 
the latest OS update, the machine is perfectly capable of shutting its 
power down with no warning. As for Office on OSX ... ugh.

As for how users behave and what they want: as software gets pushed out 
into new devices, this becomes more important. I am horrified at the 
idea of "smart meters" in electricity, not because the idea is bad, but 
because you can bet 10 cents to my ten dollars that the software design 
inside smart meters will suck. Already I am considering replacing a 
year-old washing machine because the software is so unbelievably buggy 
that it's a power-and-water hog.

Microsoft can only partly 'stop me hating them' because ultimately, it's 
a software company, and software sucks.

RC

Stilgherrian wrote:
> Folks, I just posted the following on my personal website, seeking comments
> before I have dinner with a relevant, senior Microsoft chap tomorrow night.
>
> Any comments that aren't just slagging-off platform-wars childishness or
> boring technical rants much appreciated! ;)
>
> Stil
>
>
> How can Microsoft stop us hating them?
> http://stilgherrian.com/internet/hating_microsoft/
>
> So what do you think of Microsoft, eh? No, really. I want to know.
>
> I have to admit I¹m not exactly a fan. I¹ll explain why momentarily. But
> Microsoft is changing, or at least wants to change, and I¹m finding it hard
> to shed old impressions.
>
> The Blue Monster cartoon
> http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003388.html is part of this
> changing Microsoft. Its creator, Hugh MacLeod http://www.gapingvoid.com/,
> intended it as a conversation-starter ‹ what he calls a "social object"
> http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004265.html. Steve Clayton
> from Microsoft UK says they use it to help Microsoft start talking about its
> own process of re-birth. http://youtube.com/watch?v=-kZZX8Pl5Lk
>
> I¹m cynical when software companies claim grand goals like ³changing the
> world².. That over-the-top rhetoric was central to the first dot-com bubble.
> Usually, the bigger the rhetoric the crappier the product. Still, I¹m
> willing to listen.
>
> Another sign of a changing Microsoft is my friend Nick Hodge
> http://www.nickhodge.com/ who sold me my first Mac back in 1985. Nick now
> works for the Blue Monster as an ³enthusiast evangelist², and represents how
> Microsoft is embracing blogging and a new culture of openness ‹ and actually
> having conversations with people instead of talking at them.
>
> But can Microsoft really change and, more importantly, convince us to
> believe them?
>
> Openness and transparency are important to me. As an old-school geek, I
> absorbed the principles of openness that built the early Internet. Bill
> Gates¹ infamous 1976 letter to computer hobbyists
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists  expressed a
> commercial attitude that was at odds with that openness.
>
> It irked me that Gates went on to become the richest man in the world by
> selling what I considered to be second-rate software using questionable
> business tactics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft#Criticism
>
> I reckon the best, truly innovative software is created by
> awesomely-intelligent individuals or small, focussed teams like 37signals.
> Microsoft¹s industrial-scale development process, with armies of cubicle
> droids, seems incapable of producing anything other than bloated,
> overly-complicated and buggy software.
>
> Certainly my business clients running Windows generate far more support
> calls than those using Macs. Now that Apple has added what for me was the
> one missing feature, I intend returning to Apple¹s productivity software
> rather than using Microsoft Office for Mac.
>
> But, as I say, these are existing or old impressions. A young Microsoft
> employee told Hugh MacLeod that a lot of the culture shift inside Microsoft
> is generational. 
>
>     http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004337.html
>
>     The old guard is highly competitive, the new guard is more
>     collaborative. The old guard sees Open Source as a threat,
>     the new guard sees Open Source as an opportunity. He was
>     confident the new guard will prevail because, of course,
>     being young, they¹ll be around for much longer. He reckoned
>     it¹ll be at least another decade before the outside world
>     starts recognizing the change that¹s currently happening
>     internally.
>
> Now I¹m writing about this today for a reason.
>
> Nick Hodge has invited me and a few other geeks to dinner tomorrow with Joe
> Wilson, Worldwide Director of Microsoft¹s Academic and Enthusiast
> Evangelists (of which he is one). So, I know what I feel about Microsoft,
> and I¹m interested to hear what he¹s got to say ‹ over a nice wine or two at
> Macchiavelli.
>
> What do you think about Microsoft, and how would you like to see them
> change? Can you think they can do it?
>
>
>