December 1, 2003
It seems that some people think it is cool to hate Microsoft. There even is a web ring of people that hate Microsoft. We got an e-mail from a friend of a friend listing the reasons Microsoft is so "evil". There was even "a study" done that confirms Microsoft is evil.
We get a chuckle every time we read such trash. Talk about poor losers.
We don't really understand the phenomena where a certain percentage of people always hate winners. Doesn't matter if we are talking IBM in mainframes, Wal-Mart in retailing, Microsoft in desktops, or Allen-Bradley (Rockwell) in PLCs. No matter how successful you become -- it is guaranteed that a certain percentage of the population will hate you!
Let's look at some of the arguments:
Fiction: Microsoft charges too much. Many of the programs that now cost $100 cost about $500 before Microsoft started lowering the prices. Microsoft brought the prices down so low -- competitors went out of business.
Fiction: Microsoft software requires a constant flow of service packs and upgrades. Although this is a true statement -- it is what responsible software companies do.
Microsoft's service packs and upgrades are free. Many software companies charge a yearly maintenance price.
Many software companies fail to admit that their software even has problems -- much less fix them! In the automation business the product companies are tied so tight to the magazines -- what magazine is going to talk about problems with a product? You never see anyone reporting about problems with automation products. There have been numerous times we had a repeatable problem that the manufacturer refused to admit existed. But with Microsoft -- it is all out there.
Responsible companies fix their problems and release new versions ASAP. It is called being "responsive". It is a good thing and what good companies do.
Microsoft has probably a hundred different products but there are only 50 working weeks a year. So if they release service packs and upgrades on a regular basis (like good software companies should do) then there will be software releases for a couple of products every week.
Fiction: Microsoft is too big. Why would someone hate a company because it is too big?
Fiction: Microsoft makes too much money. Okay, maybe Microsoft does make more profit than any other company -- but why punish someone simply because they are successful? It goes back to, no matter how successful you are, a certain percentage of people will hate you.
Fiction: Microsoft has problems with their software and will not fix them. Yes, people actually make two opposite arguments about "too many service packs and upgrades" and "not enough" in the same bandwidth.
Fiction: Microsoft is responsible for all the viruses. That is like saying all the good people are responsible for all the bad things that bad people do (stop laughing -- some people actually believe in this philosophy). The fact is -- a certain percentage of the population is bad, rotten, and evil. These bad people look for targets. Microsoft is one huge target since they are the biggest software company in the world. Being huge does not make Microsoft bad (see above) -- but gives bad people a "lightning rod" to take out their bad behavior. We, or any other decent programmers, if we were bad people, could write viruses for any software we chose to. The reason Microsoft gets so much attention regarding viruses -- is because 80 or 90 percent of all software out there is Microsoft software.
Fiction: "Buffer overruns viruses were found in 1999. Microsoft has failed to protect all computers". This person was arguing against all the Microsoft patches and upgrades that fix this problem, and virus software that prevent this problem and then they make the argument that nothing has been done? Liberal people making false claims obviously do not think or use logic -- it's all feelings.
Fiction: Microsoft has incredible churn. People have only just started to migrate to XP, and already there is Windows 2003. People have to rewrite all their VB apps in VB.NET. This is 100% true. Then again people use to walk every where. Then we had to learn to ride horses, ride bikes, drive cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains, buses, boats, golf carts, tractors, ATVs, airplanes, rockets. We can not believe that people are arguing that improvement is a bad thing! They don't want any changes or improvements? They want to live with all the problems in the world as they are today?
We could babble on all day, but we feel that we made our point. With certain percentages of the population hating successful people and companies, certain percentages just rotten, certain percentages loving Unix / Linux / Lindows (whatever the latest version is) and a certain percentage just down right crazy -- it is not hard to believe that there are people out there that hate (or do not prefer) Microsoft.
Why can't they just say "I don't like Microsoft" or "I prefer Unix / Linux / Lindows" and get on with their lives? We applaud the people that do this. Instead these fanatics feel that they have to waste parts of their life spreading lies about Microsoft. What is amazing is that they believe they can make-up stuff and keep repeating it until everyone will believe these untruths.
Back in the early 90's with the release of Windows 3.0 and 3.11, we saw that Microsoft was going to be the dominate force. IBM had released OS/2 about the same time, and OS/2 seemed like technically it may be a better OS. Borland had some nice stuff out then, Lotus 1-2-3 was very popular, and there was other software that we hated to do without.
But we realized that Microsoft would be "the software" on nearly every computer. So we switched back in the early 90s.
It took a long time for Microsoft to get it's act together. DLLs, DCOM, OLE, DDE, one language could not call another easily, some languages did not have proper object oriented programming features. Then again Microsoft is trying to do very grandiose things.
We feel that now with .NET, Microsoft has finally started delivering the type of software that you would expect from the world's largest software company. It can integrate all architecture from top to bottom and front to back. What more could a software developer ask for?
Most decisions in life are based on risk versus reward analysis. The corollary is that there is only so much risk that one can, or should, take at one time (without spontaneously combusting :-).
So people get their risks by skydiving, mountain climbing, piloting a plane, getting married (the wife said I better delete that last part -- but she never reads automation stuff -- so don't tell her okay?).
We get enough risks simply running our business and doing custom projects. That is enough risk for us. We would rather be 80 to 90 percent compatible and follow the wide, clearly defined, safe, Microsoft trail.
Besides, what is the reward for working with software that is vaguely defined, inconsistent, does not have hardly any 3rd party products, and is not compatible with hardly anything?
For all the Unix / Linux / Lindows lovers out there -- more power to you as you blaze new trails. We admire you for doing it -- we would rather take other risks elsewhere.
We believe in a free market society and as long as there is a free market -- Microsoft should be allowed to continue to do what they are doing. For example, let's say that now that Microsoft has 80 to 90 percent of the world's market -- Microsoft jacks their prices up. You can talk to anyone with a simplistic understanding of economics -- Microsoft raising their prices will translate directly into more sales for Microsoft's competitors. Currently, how many new start-ups can afford to create a competing product to Microsoft Word when Microsoft sells theirs for $100?
A new word processing company has to come out with a better product for less money -- if they want to be competitive. First, how can anyone design anything significantly better than Microsoft Word? Second, how can they afford to develop, support, and market a product for $50 a copy (half of Microsoft's price).
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