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Forbes slams Microsoft, Vista and Ballmer

iphil said:
Found the problem with vista delay:

The new programs are phenomenally complex, with scores of buttons and pull-down menus and myriad connections among various applications.

😱 🙄 😀
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I have to say that I don't find this hard to believe. A friend of mine who really is a true MS zealot, was trying out the very newest version of MS Office (forget the exact name) and he said that MS had removed most of the menus and replaced them with incomprehensible buttons. Ugh. I really have this feeling that Vista might end up turning into a complete fiasco due to its user friendliness issues. Its definitely something Apple needs to play into, especially for the less tech-savvy users that already are finding XP hard to use.
 
Apple shouldn't rub in the complexities of Office into MS's face. Apple still needs MS to sell and update Office for Macs to survive.

And about the entire article in general and his feelings on Microsoft.......RIP!!!
 
MS does have a bad habit for focusing on features and not the machine-human interface. I don't like Office, but there aren't any alternatives for certian kinds of work.

Even if Vista arrives very late and is not that great, people will buy it in droves because billions of people use Windows...although this clumsy OS transition does come at a fortuitous moment for Apple, whose entire line will be transitioned to Intel CPUs and running Leopard by the time Vista finally wheezes across the finish line and hits shelves.

And Ballmer is an irritating fool. Just thought I'd add that.
 
So true Apple really jump on this wrong step by M$ and continue the Switch ads and they'll get tons of switchers once they see Vista 😀

I'm sure the PR group in M$ will spin Vista into the Better OS than Leopard 🙄 🙄

Like the Current XP ads say everything connects but they don't say that you'd need more software to record music like GarageBand does in Mac 😕 😕
 
I spent ages reading this. It's supposed to be a Microsoft insiders blog, and sounding board for MS employees (unofficial obviously). Bottom line - even they hate it.
 
iphil said:
So true Apple really jump on this wrong step by M$ and continue the Switch ads and they'll get tons of switchers once they see Vista 😀
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I think that some new "Switch Ads" would be nice to see. The atmosphere for getting people to switch to Macintosh seems ripe.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
MS does have a bad habit for focusing on features and not the machine-human interface. I don't like Office, but there aren't any alternatives for certian kinds of work.
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That is the exact difference between Microsoft and Apple. I am going to use that from now on when I talk to Windows people. Thanks.
 
So let me get this straight: they keep pushing back the release date for Vista (now January 2007) because they want it to be just right, and yet they're still grappling with problems like this?

Sheesh.

I don't want to hear from anyone how Apple can do things like this right because they're a smaller, more nimble company. This is human interface stuff. It doesn't take years to figure out, nor hundreds of brilliant minds.

Apple turns around a new OS release every year and manages to get the features right, or mostly right, the first time. Yeah, I know that for MS this is a big paradigm shift, but for cryin' out loud, so was our change from OS 9 to OS X, and Apple handled that with 'way more finesse than these jokers.
 
seriosuly, microsoft have issues with keeping up their OS, Xp has been around for 5 years and no real upgrades, it's what you can call ANCIENT in tech world, who still sale 5 years old software on the shelfs? microsoft does 🙂
 
I read one of the above poster's links to the microsoft employee blog that is unofficial. I would normally say this kind of blog is by people who aren't employees, but these people have AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE of the inner organization workings of Microsoft.

VERY GOOD LINK. It was great to see their perspective and insights. Many of them say: "won't get it out until apple ships 3 updates to OSX"

one of the best quotes:

"At some point we will have to do something and i know at least some in my team privately agree with me. We will have to throw out everything and start again. This is what Apple did with OSX, and sure it was painful, but it worked and now they're kicking our asses. We should have done that in 2000. Now it is even more obvious we should do it. Start again and just run a compatibility layer on top. Apple did it with classic why can't we???"
-----
Edit: actually, I keep reading it. If you think that article which bashes Ballmer puts a smile on your face, this blog will make you pee your pants in excitement
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Even if Vista arrives very late and is not that great, people will buy it in droves because billions of people use Windows.
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Microsoft will sell millions of copies even if nobody wants it, the same way they sold millions of copies of every Windows iteration before it.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
It is an irritatingly successful business model - Though maybe, just maybe, it will bite them in the a** this time.
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Monopolies are pretty annoying. In a year (or so) Vista will be the only flavor of Windows available. It'll be pushed through the OEM pipeline and millions of copies will be shipped preloaded onto PCs, even if not a single person really wants it.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
MS does have a bad habit for focusing on features and not the machine-human interface.
Click to expand...

That is probably because you needs humans working for them to be able to focus on that interface!😀
 
The link to the MS employees venting blog is really good. And it does seem legit, or someone wasted a long time making it up....

My favorite quote thus far:
"What's the difference between OS X and Vista?

Microsoft employees are excited about OS X..."
 
I posted this before, but this seems like a good time & place to repost:

From an internal Microsoft memo revealed during the EC's case against the company -

"The Windows API is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most ISVs would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead...

"It is this switching cost that has given the customers the patience to stick with Windows through all our mistakes, our buggy drivers, our high TCO, our lack of a sexy vision at times, and many other difficulties [...] Customers constantly evaluate other desktop platforms, [but] it would be so much work to move over that they hope we just improve Windows rather than force them to move.

"In short, without this exclusive franchise called the Windows API, we would have been dead a long time ago."

😱
 
Good Article. ..and yes it sounded so true.

It doesn't matter how delayed Windows Vista is going to be. People will wait for it and in the end Microsoft will sell billions of copies of it. That is just how this all works. Most PC users are going to upgrade.
 
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