OR:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Microsoft
People seem to love to hate anything that has more success than them. They also seem to forget that everyone legacy starts out small. Microsoft didn't just shit out Windows, contrary to some Internet postings I've seen: "OMG micro$oft is teh suxxorz and tehy are mony grubbing cockbites they got so mcuh mony why does evrything they make suck @$$ OMG etc. etc."* Ugh that gets annoying fast. Not so much the attack on the English language, but the ignorance of it all. Microsoft is a corperation, and like any corperation their goal is to profit. And they certainly earned the profits they enjoy. They worked for their success, not working so much for a superior operating system, but to sell that operating system. But I'm not going to defend Microsoft or Windows. Rather, I'm going to explain just why everyone should be glad they are around.
As a quick aside, if it wasn't Microsoft, it would have been Apple (or perhaps some other company; My money is on Apple though). If Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed to get off the ground in the 70's and 80's then Steve Jobs and Apple would have taken their place, and everyone would complain how Apple is dominating the market and flooding it with inferior software, and we'd have an Apple X-Mac instead of an X-Box. It's simply the way industry works. On any corporate food chain there's a top dog, in this case Microsoft clawed, bit, and scratched their way up.
But why should we like them? For one, Microsoft helped realize the idea of a home PC. Back in the 70's such an idea as an affordable home PC was quite laughable. Besides the cost, they weren't exactly user-friendly, something both Apple and Microsoft realized. The difference between them, is Apple concentrated on the latter and Microsoft the former. It turns out people are, as a whole, more inclined to deal with a little, well OK, a LOT of bullshit to have a cheaper PC. Hey, the world is run by money, and people like to keep as much as possible.
OK, fine, you might say. Microsoft won. Apple lost. But PC's have become so affordable now, why should we put up with Microsoft anymore? And you know what? You would be absolutely correct. In fact, I'd strongly encourage you to try out many of the different options you have these days. If you've got a PC with Windows, but don't want to buy new hardware to try another operating system, then try Linux. Most distributions are completely free, and the few that cost money, cost very little. It has come a long way from it's former stance of being very user-UNfriendly, and In fact, there are several distributions that cater especially to those new to Linux and focus on usability. Ubuntu is one such distribution. Knoppix, a distribution that runs completely from a CD or DVD, is another. And of course you can invest in a Mac.
Wait a minute, you say. You spent half your entry saying that we should love Windows, and now you want us to abandon it? I doubt very much that everyone who reads this will switch to linux or a Mac, or some other OS. We need Microsoft to compete with. Corporations by default hate competition because it takes away their profits. Consumers should love it, because it encourages those corporations to pump out better products. And so far, it seems to be working. Not so much on the OS front, but in other areas such as web browsers, e-mail clients, document applications and the like.
There are free alternatives or cheaper alternatives to pretty much every proprietary software Microsoft puts out. Don't like Internet Explorer? Get Mozilla's Firefox. It has more features and is far more secure. Sick of Outlook? Mozilla also has an e-mail client called Thunderbird. You can even get a free replacement for Office. OpenOffice is a free replacement from Sun Microsystems. They must be doing something right, because Microsoft's market share is taking a hit, particularly from Firefox. If you do nothing else, you should at least look into these alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary software. It's nowhere near as complex as trying a new Operating System, and you just might like the alternatives better.
You don't have to like Microsoft, but there's no use complaining. They aren't going anywhere soon.
*It's interesting that most of the people who make those comments run some form of windows and post in Internet Explorer, despite insisting the inferiority of it all. Dumbasses, why they don't just switch operating systems and shut up already is beyond me...
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Microsoft
People seem to love to hate anything that has more success than them. They also seem to forget that everyone legacy starts out small. Microsoft didn't just shit out Windows, contrary to some Internet postings I've seen: "OMG micro$oft is teh suxxorz and tehy are mony grubbing cockbites they got so mcuh mony why does evrything they make suck @$$ OMG etc. etc."* Ugh that gets annoying fast. Not so much the attack on the English language, but the ignorance of it all. Microsoft is a corperation, and like any corperation their goal is to profit. And they certainly earned the profits they enjoy. They worked for their success, not working so much for a superior operating system, but to sell that operating system. But I'm not going to defend Microsoft or Windows. Rather, I'm going to explain just why everyone should be glad they are around.
As a quick aside, if it wasn't Microsoft, it would have been Apple (or perhaps some other company; My money is on Apple though). If Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed to get off the ground in the 70's and 80's then Steve Jobs and Apple would have taken their place, and everyone would complain how Apple is dominating the market and flooding it with inferior software, and we'd have an Apple X-Mac instead of an X-Box. It's simply the way industry works. On any corporate food chain there's a top dog, in this case Microsoft clawed, bit, and scratched their way up.
But why should we like them? For one, Microsoft helped realize the idea of a home PC. Back in the 70's such an idea as an affordable home PC was quite laughable. Besides the cost, they weren't exactly user-friendly, something both Apple and Microsoft realized. The difference between them, is Apple concentrated on the latter and Microsoft the former. It turns out people are, as a whole, more inclined to deal with a little, well OK, a LOT of bullshit to have a cheaper PC. Hey, the world is run by money, and people like to keep as much as possible.
OK, fine, you might say. Microsoft won. Apple lost. But PC's have become so affordable now, why should we put up with Microsoft anymore? And you know what? You would be absolutely correct. In fact, I'd strongly encourage you to try out many of the different options you have these days. If you've got a PC with Windows, but don't want to buy new hardware to try another operating system, then try Linux. Most distributions are completely free, and the few that cost money, cost very little. It has come a long way from it's former stance of being very user-UNfriendly, and In fact, there are several distributions that cater especially to those new to Linux and focus on usability. Ubuntu is one such distribution. Knoppix, a distribution that runs completely from a CD or DVD, is another. And of course you can invest in a Mac.
Wait a minute, you say. You spent half your entry saying that we should love Windows, and now you want us to abandon it? I doubt very much that everyone who reads this will switch to linux or a Mac, or some other OS. We need Microsoft to compete with. Corporations by default hate competition because it takes away their profits. Consumers should love it, because it encourages those corporations to pump out better products. And so far, it seems to be working. Not so much on the OS front, but in other areas such as web browsers, e-mail clients, document applications and the like.
There are free alternatives or cheaper alternatives to pretty much every proprietary software Microsoft puts out. Don't like Internet Explorer? Get Mozilla's Firefox. It has more features and is far more secure. Sick of Outlook? Mozilla also has an e-mail client called Thunderbird. You can even get a free replacement for Office. OpenOffice is a free replacement from Sun Microsystems. They must be doing something right, because Microsoft's market share is taking a hit, particularly from Firefox. If you do nothing else, you should at least look into these alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary software. It's nowhere near as complex as trying a new Operating System, and you just might like the alternatives better.
You don't have to like Microsoft, but there's no use complaining. They aren't going anywhere soon.
*It's interesting that most of the people who make those comments run some form of windows and post in Internet Explorer, despite insisting the inferiority of it all. Dumbasses, why they don't just switch operating systems and shut up already is beyond me...
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