The thread to laugh at Microsoft

[GreyGeek]

.... What made working with Windows Vista a "pain in the rectum"?

The IT department in the division of the State of Nebraska where I worked had a contract with suppliers who won contracts based on the lowest bid. At the time DELL was the supplier of PCs and such equipment. When a laptop died or aged out the Supply division would send us a new replacement with equal or better capabilities from DELL. One day three new laptops arrived, each with VISTA installed. For laptops they were powerhouses at the time, late 2007, IIRC, and had 17" screens, the first in the department. Much more powerful than any previous or currently used laptops. The head of IT and his two top assistants kept the laptops to evaluate VISTA. They couldn't get VISTA to stay up. It crashed incessantly. The video hung the machine and in that month each of them had to reinstall VISTA at least three times to restore some semblance of stability.

After about a month they brought one to me and one to another fellow in the software dev group. The IT head kept working on his.
I forget what they called it but the video display was gorgeous. Running on a quad core with 6GB of RAM and a 500GB HD, VISTA was unusually slow at times, and lightening fast at other times. I never got a chance to install dev tools on the box I was given because I could never keep it running. It never ran more than an hour from a boot up with out hanging or crashing. It would complain about "digital rights" and then reduce the screen resolution to unacceptable levels. It often required re-registering with Microsoft because it "recognized" too many new components. This on a machine unchanged from the day it arrived. It's been seven years since my experience with VISTA and I am recalling events with a memory that is far from stellar, but after two or three days of trying to get QT installed and running I gave up and gave the machine back to IT. So did the other guy in Dev.

The IT head sent a memo to Supply to never send another computer with VISTA installed. He scrubbed VISTA off of those three machines and put a volume copy of XP on it. With XP they ran well. He and his two buddies kept the machines.

Some people claim to have no problems running VISTA. I suspect that it has a lot to do with the hardware they are using and how far down the upgrade path they got before Microsoft dropped support.
Distrowatch's OS metrics shows that even today nearly one million visitors to Distrowatch are using VISTA. So, some people are still happy with it.

[NickStone]

As this thread is to laugh at Microsoft, I'll post a news story that I read some time ago which made me laugh and I really hope it is true.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borow...ll-windows-8-1

[GreyGeek]

Wow! If that photo of Bill Gates is recent, then he looks almost as old as I do!

[Tom_ZeCat]

My disdain for Microsoft isn't because of its OS or software, but because when faced with ethical, and sometimes illegal choices, Bill Gates & company often chose the low road, and sometimes the illegal one. Ballmer was worse. ... [snip] ...

In the late 1980s and early 1990s I was a Microsoft fanboy, but in my business I found that DR-DOS was better, and had better memory control for upper memory than MS-DOS. I was attempting to install Win3.1 beta and encountered an error sometime in 1992, IIRC. I switched to MS-DOS because I was fearful of crashes or other problems.
DDJ's September 1993 article, "Examining the Windows AARD Detection Code," by Andrew Schulman documented a strange behavior. The early release of Windows 3.1 gave a cryptic error: "Non-fatal error detected: error #4D53". This significance of the code that generated this error message, later given the name "AARD code", was not revealed until emails released in the 1999 Microsoft anti-trust case:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

When I read that article, and how the author replaced the AARD code with NOP's, and Win3.1 installed and ran fine, I was outraged. I switched back to DR-DOS and from that time on watched Microsoft with a jaundiced eye. As far as dirty tricks are concerned Gates and Ballmer never disappointed me. But I was still a fan of Windows, while not of Microsoft, albeit keeping them separate is difficult because when you support Windows you support Microsoft. ... [snip]

I went through the same thing. I had a Windows 3.1 program I needed to run, but when I attempted to install Win 3.1 over DR-DOS, I got that message and took it to mean that it was incompatible. I went out and acquired MS-DOS so that I could run Win 3.1. Like you, I was outraged when I learned it was a ruse. That's why I have an axiom about software: “It's unethical to pirate software, except for Microsoft software. If there's some piece of Microsoft software that you must use for some reason, the ethical thing to do is to pirate it.” However, I'm much more enjoying using the legitimately free Linux-based software.

The other thing that really ticked me off about Microsoft is the way they treated Stac Electronics. Stac had created an application named “Stacker” that would compress your hard drive, giving you more room. This was back when drives were expensive. Microsoft negotiated with Stac to make Stacker part of the next version of MS-DOS. Then they learned their trade secrets, broke off talks, and came out with their own competing product, DoubleSpace, in the next version of DOS. Stac sued Microsoft and won.

Yes, what I've disliked abour Microsoft have been both the shoddy products and their dirty unethical and illegal tricks. That's why I enjoyed the article showing that they've put their foot in their mouths.

The IT department in the division of the State of Nebraska where I worked had a contract with suppliers who won contracts based on the lowest bid. At the time DELL was the supplier of PCs and such equipment. [snip]

Some people claim to have no problems running VISTA. I suspect that it has a lot to do with the hardware they are using and how far down the upgrade path they got before Microsoft dropped support.
Distrowatch's OS metrics shows that even today nearly one million visitors to Distrowatch are using VISTA. So, some people are still happy with it.

Whoah, some people hit the distrowatch site with Palm OS and some with CP/M. How is that possible?

Ah, the Daily Caller... despiser of the "liberal media," bastion of the right, upholder of all that is good and moral. Funny, the "suggested stories" accompanying this article appear to be the exact opposite of what one would presume to be wholesome news:

I'm disappointed that the link to “20 Celebrities who shockingly used to be hot” does not work. I was looking forward to getting turned on by Hillary Clinton.

As this thread is to laugh at Microsoft, I'll post a news story that I read some time ago which made me laugh and I really hope it is true.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borow...ll-windows-8-1

LOL. Okay, that's hilarious. It's on the New Yorker's humor page, so is it a parody? Or is it a real story that they found funny?

I think Bill should try Kubuntu.

[Simon]

As this thread is to laugh at Microsoft, I'll post a news story that I read some time ago which made me laugh and I really hope it is true.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borow...ll-windows-8-1

A bit too "sketchy" to be much more than an urban legend. Lacking details and not naming the "source" leaves me to believe this is not much more than a fish story. The New Yorker might be a credible publication at the news stands but I have found some highly questionable articles are written by online authors. For example; This article in Scientific American.

I bet you are wondering where they get these authors? The issue is they are freelancers that write about anything they want and submit it to the online magazine. The magazine doesn't care as long as people read it and click those ads. The author get paid a few dollars if his article draws any interest. In order to draw that interest, all the freelancer needs to do is spout out controversy. For example posting articles about metaphysics in a pure science magazine or posting a pro evolution article in a religion magazine. Thus the new age of trolling is upon us. lol

I can't say for sure one way or the other as to the credibility of this Bill Gates story. Just that he more people who respond drives up the revenues. Sadly there is no "job requirements" for these authors and you might as well be getting your information from the Onion News.

[SteveRiley]

In a Democracy all sides of a debate on "family values" should have equal rights to marshal support for their own.

Not when some people assert that their values authorize them to demonize, belittle, and control the lives of others.

[SteveRiley]

As this thread is to laugh at Microsoft, I'll post a news story that I read some time ago which made me laugh and I really hope it is true.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borow...ll-windows-8-1

LOL. Okay, that's hilarious. It's on the New Yorker's humor page, so is it a parody? Or is it a real story that they found funny?

A bit too "sketchy" to be much more than an urban legend... I can't say for sure one way or the other as to the credibility of this Bill Gates story.

It's satire, as is everything written by Andy Borowitz in the Borowitz Report.

[Simon]

Not when some people assert that their values authorize them to demonize, belittle, and control the lives of others.

I see you have met my father.

[Tom_ZeCat]

Not when some people assert that their values authorize them to demonize, belittle, and control the lives of others.

Since SteveRiley is a demon, I belittle him, and am authorized to control his life. j/k

I agree with you. Today the people who scream the loudest for getting the government out of people's lives are the very ones who work hardest to allow the government to meddle in all our lives. They also turn over too much power to the corporations who also control our lives too much. The major corporations have so much power they're like a governing body. I'll shut up now, though, or I may never shut up.

[GreyGeek]

I see you have met my father.

I didn't know that we were brothers!

[SteveRiley]

Since SteveRiley is a demon, I belittle him, and am authorized to control his life.

You promised you wouldn't tell!