Thread: Why can't Microsoft make products that work?

HNSB,

That is why I switched to various flavours of UNIX (OpenBSD, FreeBSD & Solaris) & GNU/Linux some six years ago

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Originally Posted by HNSB

The market should dictate that if someone had software that was superior (and there are several out there) that Microsoft should be out of business

That sounds like it's a problem with the market. People are so stupid, all buying Microsoft products when there are better ones to be had.

Do you need to use Outlook?? I use Linux primarily at home but am forced to use Windows at work currently so I just use the Windows version of Thunderbird for email you could always give that a try.

Old People.


No offense, but my parents just LOVE all the new nanny-state modifications to windows... it makes it so that non-computer savvy folk can be confident that they will not destroy their OS, and it makes them confident they CAN, say, put an image in an email.

Case in point, the decision to make all the menus in 2007+ Windows software is so kinesthetic it makes me gag... but people who aren't previously acquainted with computers find it easier to look for a picture of what they are trying to do than a menu item followed by data fields requesting numbers and commands for formatting.

In Windows 7, they eliminated the cool photo fix buttons, in the photo program.
In Vista for instance, they had "Fix" and Crop, Red eye, stuff like that..In Win 7, it's gone. Now, you have download Windows Live in order to fix your photos...If your cheap like me, and won't buy a Photo shop program....

P.S. I'm an old "Ms Dos" guy, I've always hated windows. FWIW....

How many of you remember "Power Menu", Formtool, Wordstar, and when monitors only had "Red or Green" colors to choose from...?

I was thinking about going to Macs but the price the cheapest mac note books are almost twice the price of most pc note books but can they be twice a good twice as fast?
I'm not a fan of windows using it has wasted weeks of my life just to keep it running.
I have looked at linux but It's not for me.

So back to windows oh well if it doesn't play ball I can always leave it and go for a shave.

Anyway I have a question for you tech guys out there who in your opinion makes note books with good quality parts?

It always comes back to the OS. :/

MS Office is -- hands down -- the best office suite out there. Outlook is arguably the best mail client, especially when you consider that the vast majority of businesses are using Exchange.

If you insert an inline image in Outlook '07, it will autosize it and there's no one-click way to disable that. For the times when you want a 1:1 image, it can be a little annoying that it takes like 3 clicks to set it properly. In my experiences, it's actually quite handy in that you can manipulate the image size right in the email and the entire email will change dynamically. This is great for people like me who are OCD about formatting.

Originally Posted by Evin

Anyway I have a question for you tech guys out there who in your opinion makes note books with good quality parts?

Parts were important may be 20 years ago, these days almost all computers are made of the same parts.
Apple computer isn't going to be faster than a windows computer, it'll most likely be slower. Apple's implementation of the operating system sucks and has sucked from day one. If you install and run windows on the same machine along OS X you'll find out that Windows outperforms the OS X (similarly for computing power Linux outperforms Windows on the same hardware).

As I posted earlier Apple is a design company so all the extra money goes into a sexier looking computer and much more intuitive user interface.
Look at straight razors, when they're made very pretty they can sell for several times what an ugly one that shaves just as well, or sometimes even better. When people have disposable money they can pay a lot for bling.


So it depends on how much you value your time. If you don't like Linux (my parents who don't know much about computers prefer it to Windows), your only options are Windows and OS X, but the later may be a bit expensive. It does come with various rather programs already in, and the Apple's office suite is quite a bit cheaper than Microsofts, so the price difference may not be as drastic at it seems on first sight.

Keep in mind also that things change, most quickly in the world of Linux, but also Windows 7 may not be so bad as whatever you had wasted weeks with.

As a retired software engineer with considerable experience on Windows PC, I am truly amazed with all that goes on under the hood it even works. Millions of processor cycles per second, tons of context sensitive messages in the gueues, screen paints, internet sockets... not to even mention all the third party hardware that is thrown into the stew. It's not the best but it does actually work from time to time as it is now.

The only people who think microsoft products don't work are those that have never seen a developement project up close.

Allthough I understand people not LIKING microsoft products...you actually can't claim they don't work. They (usually) do exactly what they were designed to do and appeal to the greater mass of people (as shown by their sales).

What you mean is "why won't microsoft products do what I WANT THEM TO DO!" which is a completely different question.

Also....most things in microsoft products (apart from looks etc) can be changed in the settings.....

I'm sorry to say this but if you're having problems with the cropping in Outlook...you've probably just not changed the standard setting yet. Which means that Outlook DOES work...it's just that you haven't yet.