5 Reasons Microsoft Sucks
Most people assume that, since I am not an Apple fan, that I must like Microsoft. Here are 5 things that made Microsoft great in my books, followed by 5 things that now makes them suck.
5 Things that Made Microsoft Awesome
5. MSSQL - It's been a few years since I worked with databases but MSSQL was rock solid.
4. Computer Peripherals - - Affordable mice that lasted virtually forever, followed up with amazing warranty service if you needed it.
3. Windows XP. - with honorable mentions to Windows 95, 98, and 7.
2. Excel -As a stand-alone software product this is likely the most irreplaceable one I can think of in terms of productivity and scalability. Using formulas and references in Excel played an important role in how I taught myself to code. And if you have ever had the misfortune of using any other spreadsheet program you will know how superior Excel is over any other application like it.
1. Open Platform - It's hard for regular people to imagine how different the internet and computing landscape would be if Microsoft had not made Windows an open platform. To give you an idea, if Apple had been the dominant operating system in the 90s, software developers would have been paying fees and favors to Apple to write software for their O/S. I can imagine that there would be have been a bureaucratic labyrinth of policies and standards that one would have had to navigate to be part of the club. The fee would have been small at first, then grow larger, and finally become an annual "subscription" similar to what developers pay to publish IOS apps for iPhone and iPad.
5 Reasons Microsoft Sucks Now
5. Subscription Model - Immediately following my praise for Microsoft making Windows open platform, they are starting to act a bit more like Apple these days. I don't need to get into detail here, just look at Office 360 and the aggressive push to Windows 10 (Forced updates.
4. Killing off "Free" Products - It was really annoying when Microsoft dropped Outlook Express and even more disappointing when they decided to discontinue Windows Live Mail Jan 2017.
3. Overpriced - Despite lowers costs and not having to ship disks anymore, Microsoft seems to always be jacking up their prices. Instead of 3 computer office licenses, you can now buy 1 at the same price. The market and cloud services are frantically looking to take aware their market share, but Microsoft seems content with shipping really expensive pieces of paper hoping that users will be too lazy or scared to try something new.
2. Zero Innovation for Small Networks - I really believe that the growth of cloud services, external drive backups, and flash drives (while they all serve a purpose) has been fueled by Microsoft missing the mark on so many fronts. Lack of shared calendars, terrible backup and synchronization software, or other built in small home/office networking functionality has forced Microsoft into the 'enterprise' class and pushed consumers to other products and applications.
1. Trying to be Apple - This is a bit redundant, but nevertheless, it's my #1 reason that Microsoft now sucks. It summarizes all the negative points above and applies a motive that's more powerful than money. Microsoft was always under fire for being a monopoly, but since it enabled other software developers and the computer age to develop, this really wasn't the case looking back. But these days it seems to me that Microsoft is jealous of it's little brother's (Apple) fame and has given up on being Microsoft and is trying to re-invent itself into something it was never intended for. A big clumsy organization building mediocre IOS wannabe software for average people that will put up with it and put in their credit card information so they can pay yearly for updates that hopefully don't make it any worse.
Bonus Reasons
Good - Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback steering wheel. I bought one from Compusmart in the 90s for under $100 and I still miss that thing.
Bad - Ads in the Windows 10 Start menu. I know every software is doing this now, but are you kidding me? You make me pay for Windows 10 with my new computer, then I have to look at XBOX and Minecraft pop-ups. To me this is like putting coupons in your cheeseburger or having ad banners in the mirrors of your new car.
