Is it too late to start hating Microsoft/Windows products?
 

Just curious.

I've had some recent friction with them lately and NOW that I've finally had enough of the MFers I dont always hear the maoning and sharpening of knives for them as I have in the past.

Is it too late to truly hate these people and Windows?


:blush:

Never too late!

It's not their products that's the problem. It's their demand that they be paid for them. Recently, they have made it a huge pain in the ass to update your machine.

I'm upgrading my MCSE to 2003 and when I'm done with it, I'm done with Microsoft. I'll be going for my CCIE (aka the Holy Grail of computer industry certifications)

Yes, this is kinda the problem I'm having. There's no problem at this moment but I had the machine that I bought about 6 months ago die and the OS recovery disk was used to bring it back. I put the product key in from the CD which was made for this specific computer and the online "verification" wouldnt accept it.

After some fuck-around I got everything back running but the program wouldnt run until I called MacroShaft(in the ass)directly (in India) to get some double secret code to enter into the machine.

The big deal is that I only have a cellphone for emergencies with very limited time. As it turned out I had 1 minute of call time left to complete this new "verification".

I dont even want to think about what in this room I would have broken with the fantasy that it was Mr Shafts head, if the time had run out and I couldnt use this machine.

Which just gets me to thinking. Why is it that I have to go through all this horseshit anyway?

Maybe it's time I start looking at some alternatives (so that I dont have a fucking stroke the next time Mr Shaft thinks I might be stealing his unstable and unsecure OS ). It'd be nice to just tell those nice folks on the phone to eat my shee--it next time.

Great, now even the polar opposite HM has the same opinion as I do! :biggrin:

What next? Radar agre---....oh...never mind.

Linux is very solid for desktop use as long as you're willing to read the manual and a large number of options doesn't bug you. If you have the cash money OS X is very slick -- I can't wait for it to come to x86!

[quote=slang...I put the product key in from the CD which was made for this specific computer and the online "verification" wouldnt accept it.

...[/QUOTE]

This worked this morning when I checked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Microsoft "Genuine Advantage" cracked in 24h: window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all'
AV sez, "This week, Microsoft started requiring users to verifiy their serial number before using Windows Update. This effort to force users to either buy XP or tell them where you got the illegal copy is called 'Genuine Advantage.' It was cracked within 24 hours."

Before pressing 'Custom' or 'Express' buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

It turns off the trigger for the key check.

Doesn't help if you've activated too many times...you HAVE to call them or you Windows will lock you out.

Just remember, an Apple iMac will cost a lot more to replace when you boot it down the steps.

Is it too late?

Maybe so.

All I can say is, back in the 90s when the geeks were screaming bloody murder about Microsoft, a lot of it was poo-pooed by the business establishment as reactionary whining from crybabies who were jealous of Bill Gates' financial success and superior products. That's not without a grain of truth, but it ignores the fact that there were substantive issues involved too.

Ignoring substantive issues is SOP for gigantic corporations flush with other people's money. Hopefully, such blatant disregard for your customer base is the first step to failure.

If I'm going to have to re-fuck around every so often with this windows XP (that is totally legal) then I am going to start gearing up with Linux on my backup machine now.

It's not bothersome that MacroShaft is such a big company or that it has such influence or so much money. It's the fact that I have use the god damned phone to reactivate this BS.

Now THAT really fucking pisses me off.

Yes, I know...thank you.

There is an OSS project called Haiku which is working to recreate BeOS. It is getting well along and there is the final (free) release of BeOS to work from in the mean time. It is much more pleasant to use than Linux for a single user, non-server, machine. Worth looking at.

Beta 4 of SymphonyOS is out, based on the Linux kernel. Supposedly it is the interface layer of GNU/Linux done right. I can't wait to give it a try.

I personally have had lesser problems with my client's machines after I loaded WinXP then when they were all running Win98 and even Win2grand. My servers have got 2003 on them and I've never been happier. All in all, I've been pretty satisfied with Microsoft lately.

I've heard about Haiku various places but never bothered to read up at all. What's the Sci-Fi writer who is BeOS fanboy? Is it Neal Stephenson?

I can't seem to find where to download Haiku, I guess haiku-os.org is their official site?

I did find a review of yellowTab's Zeta 1.0 which sounds interesting but there's no way in hell I'm paying $130 for it without a compelling reason.

Haiku is still under development and doesn't have a download per se.

Instead go to www.beosonline.com and download the BeOS Developer Edition. This is the free personal edition that BeOS corp ended with, but updated with later drivers.

I was hoping to lend a hand with the development of Haiku as I think it is a much more approachable OS for single users than Linux. But I'm pretty solidly booked with other projects.

And if you don't want to go blind. Freetype just doesn't cut it, even with the evil patent-violating bits turned on. Err, make that the evil-patent violating bits.

Aside from that, KDE still seems a bit klunky. But then again, so is Windows.

By far, the largest problem I have had with Operating Systems is directly traceable to incompatible hardware. No just individual devices and strange driver problems; also conflicts with IRQs, registry problems that the hardware manufacturer did not properly address or properly remove, etc. IOW, by number, the most common reason for problems are directly traceable to component vendors who did not sufficiently design their product.

I can't say enough about brand name products because these incompatibilities tend to be less common with the (more expensive) brand name products.

Some glaring examples were software that, well, the vendor eventually conceded that their product was not compatible (yet) with that upgraded or new Operation System.

This is the "Macroshaft Sucks donkey ass" thread man! What are you doing!? :biggrin:

I know "OPM" sounds cool, but in this context I don't think it applies. I doubt there's much Microsoft needs to use credit for. They're exceedingly cash rich. And it's all their money.

I have to agree with Hobbs. Windows XP Pro SP2 has been beddie beddie good, to me.

Hey, now you can all wallow in it.

I think the hardware is probably designed well enough. It's more likely that the drivers are bad. That's why it's important to release detailed specs and good docs so that drivers can be written for _any_ system or rewritten if the manufacturer's drivers suck.

I don't think you should blame the OS because the drivers for your hardware aren't up to snuff and you can't blame the hardware because the drivers are shit.

Hey, I'm just saying........

I've never used Linux or BeOS, so I can't vouche for the stability of those OS's.

If it makes you feel better Slang, I do like Macintosh OSX and I think Bill Gates glasses makes him look gay, gay, gay!

How's that?

If you think the glasses make Bill look fruity check this out.

Or this.

Not so much now, but when he was younger BG sounded just like kermit the frog.

No, this is listen to Slang whine about big bad Bill Gates won't design his world around Slangs lifestyle.
When are you going learn to stay away from ANY corporate or gumint programs. Don't seek the truth...you can't handle the truth. :lol:

The problem with so much hardware design (and I worked on enough for the government to appreciate why) is that the drivers are part of the hardware design. Unfortunately too many hardware designers don't understand software and too many software writers don't have a clue about what is really happening in hardware.

I was often requested to use both software and hardware debugging tools in conjunction - be it to align disk drives in the old days or solve a bus problem in the later years. I would end up writing my own diagnostics because management had never bothered to coordinate hardware and software people in developing those necessary tools (that cost money). In many cases, communication was so poor between the hardware designer and his software assistant (who was writing the drivers) that some hardware and software departments all but would not talk to one another. Another tactic was no documentation for the hardware / software interface. Quality was not as important as cost controls and schedules.

Therefore hardware caused strange problems where it does not affect the manufacturer's bottom line - with you.

USB was a unique and rather unusually reliable creation. To address this hardware/driver problem, the USB consortium would sponsor 'plug-fests'. Then when the product did not work with so many other USB products, the boss probably could attack both his hardware and software people to either force a team or create open warfare.

From the user's perspective (if he does more than just shotgun or swap components), the hardware (chips and software/firmware) incompatibility was often reason for strange failures.

Today, bad hardware causes Windows systems to not recover from standby or from hibernate. Incompatiblity causing clone computer board manufacturers to have long lines testing their boards to video cards from virtually every video card manufacturer. And still I have seen at least one motherboard that was not compatible with a large number of AGP video cards - literally dropping pixels when run in 4X mode. Again, defective hardware. A new version of the same board appeared but months later meaning the manufacturer knew of the intermittent and was designing a replacement while still selling that marginal and earlier version. Again - hardware failure. You don't matter when it is not a brand name product.