Thoughs on programming - Big waste of time or not

John Spikowski · Post by **John Spikowski** » Oct 15, 2009 19:35

Well, they got you using it! So apparantly they do just enough. Good is not a target of a company. Profit-maximalisation is.

How many billions have they paid out in lawsuits so far? That can't help the bottom line. Microsoft is the Chernobyl of the software industry.

marcov · Post by **marcov** » Oct 15, 2009 21:10

John Spikowski wrote:
Well, they got you using it! So apparantly they do just enough. Good is not a target of a company. Profit-maximalisation is.
How many billions have they paid out in lawsuits so far?

Patent-trolls are a general disease that are everwhere where money can be found. Which makes MS an obvious target.

That can't help the bottom line.

It goes with the territory, and more a disease of not enough limits on the patent system (overly broad, rubberstamping them).

Microsoft is the Chernobyl of the software industry.

Microsoft is starting to have problems. But not these. I think the problems (like Vista) are more the result of having a hard time adapting from an unlimited growth-economy situation to a more replacement base economy.

John Spikowski · Post by **John Spikowski** » Oct 15, 2009 21:39

Patent-trolls are a general disease that are everwhere where money can be found. Which makes MS an obvious target.

Makes you wonder what the legal team for Microsoft is doing to allow them to develop software and worry about patents later. It would seem to me that it might be cheaper to license the technology rather then assume their to big and powerful to sue.

Landeel · Post by **Landeel** » Oct 16, 2009 13:18

One of the worst enemies of MS right now is Windows XP. How ironic. They had a really hard time trying to convince people to dump it for Vista, with no success. Let's see what happens with 7.

crysstaafur · Post by **crysstaafur** » Oct 16, 2009 14:02

I would have to concur with Landeel. I suspect WinXP will become microsoft's problem child, if it hasn't already. True, peeps running duel/quad/octo core systems will likely move on to Win7(which might a future thorn of a simular nature to ms...), but folks who are running older systems (let alone the sheer number of these older systems) are likely to stick with what's there.

Whenever I 'rebuild' an older system for a client, I usually ask that they byo winxp disk, if that's a no go, I then offer either vector linux or ubuntu, depending on how aged the system is. If it's a 386/486 then I'll offer FreeDOS or QNix.

If I am not imagining things it would seem that xp came out around the time that computers finally became kinda standard decorum to american homes(yes I know that's a generalization....)

in summary ms being victims of success+mass pc adoption = hilarity. ;)

pps I do tend to slip a copy of FreeBASIC on clients systems.. opps.. lol

marcov · Post by **marcov** » Oct 16, 2009 21:09

John Spikowski wrote:
Patent-trolls are a general disease that are everwhere where money can be found. Which makes MS an obvious target.
Makes you wonder what the legal team for Microsoft is doing to allow them to develop software and worry about patents later. It would seem to me that it might be cheaper to license the technology rather then assume their to big and powerful to sue.

Giving money without a fight only attracts more. Screening them by lawyers to avoid patents is near impossible after 20 years of rubberstamping applications.

marcov · Post by **marcov** » Oct 16, 2009 21:14

crysstaafur wrote:I would have to concur with Landeel. I suspect WinXP will become microsoft's problem child, if it hasn't already. True, peeps running duel/quad/octo core systems will likely move on to Win7(which might a future thorn of a simular nature to ms...), but folks who are running older systems (let alone the sheer number of these older systems) are likely to stick with what's there.

XP is retired from sales for several months now, stocks are slowly running out (I haven't tried last two months) There are always people sticking with old stuff, but there will be no practical legal way to run XP on new machines.

It's less the greatness of XP, or the $%#@ of Vista (which are IMHO only gradual differences, at best) but more the fact that there is simply
no driving force to upgrade. People don't run enthusiastically to _buy_ a windows copy on the day it comes out (*)

(*) I swear I never did this in the first place.

Whenever I 'rebuild' an older system for a client, I usually ask that they byo winxp disk, if that's a no go, I then offer either vector linux or ubuntu, depending on how aged the system is. If it's a 386/486 then I'll offer FreeDOS or QNix.

If I am not imagining things it would seem that xp came out around the time that computers finally became kinda standard decorum to american homes(yes I know that's a generalization....)

in summary ms being victims of success+mass pc adoption = hilarity. ;)

pps I do tend to slip a copy of FreeBASIC on clients systems.. opps.. lol

386/486? I barely see a P-II/III these days.

Landeel · Post by **Landeel** » Oct 16, 2009 23:58

Ha, you will see them if you go to a poor country. In fact, I still work with P-IIIs. And they are "new". I worked with P-Is and OS2 (argh) until 2006.

XP is retired from sales for several months now, stocks are slowly running out (I haven't tried last two months) There are always people sticking with old stuff, but there will be no practical legal way to run XP on new machines.

There's just one operating system more popular than Windows XP, and that's (sadly) pirated Windows XP.

roook_ph · Post by **roook_ph** » Oct 18, 2009 4:07

The sad truth is windows 98 is the standard 10 years ago . In another 3 years if microsoft thinks of something that 7 can do and XP cannot do then XP's demise is certain.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Oct 18, 2009 7:03

In order to maintain the flow of cash from your bank account to MS it is necessary for MS to destroy the utility of the product you previously purchased in good faith from MS. MS ensures that you need their connivance to keep your system secure by shipping buggy software and by not plugging all security holes. They also regularly change file formats so you cannot easily import files from others later systems back to your old systems.

When MS wants more of your cash they stop supporting their older system, you have no secure choice but to abandon MS or pay MS for the upgrade to a newer version. Since the new version must at least appear to be different, MS add aero-bling to absorb the greater processor power now available and make it look different on the outside even though it functions the same, but slower on the inside. The cost of upgrade from Vista to 7 is less than from XP to 7. They will get their cash flow from you even if you skip a rotten version.

The only alternative to this serial obsolescence would be for MS to only license its operating system and software by annual service contract. The internet now makes that almost possible.

You won't waste any more time complaining about MS Windows and you can stop your cash flow to MS simply by changing to Linux and Open Office.

Landeel · Post by **Landeel** » Oct 18, 2009 18:59

You won't waste any more time complaining about MS Windows and you can stop your cash flow to MS simply by changing to Linux and Open Office.

My name is Landeel and I'm free from MS since 2006. ;)

John Spikowski · Post by **John Spikowski** » Oct 18, 2009 19:32

My name is Landeel and I'm free from MS since 2006. ;)

http://www.msfree.com/

Eponasoft · Post by **Eponasoft** » Oct 19, 2009 22:25

I've been Microsoft-free for a few months now and am still wondering how I used their products all those years. Ever since abandoning Windows, I've found that I have had to force myself to code better and to learn systems that I previously found inaccessible because they were "too hard". There are always some "nice" things that Windows does that aren't done properly elsewhere, but none of them are dealbreakers. I guess every system has its strong points...they're just hard to find in Microsoft land...

Galeon · Post by **Galeon** » Oct 22, 2009 11:18

I haven't opened MS Windows for 2 weeks, I'm happy with Ubuntu Linux.

Landeel · Post by **Landeel** » Oct 22, 2009 12:55

I haven't opened MS Windows for 2 weeks, I'm happy with Ubuntu Linux.

Congratulations. The first two weeks are the hardest. ;)