Microsoft

This is my second rant. Many of you may not know that I am in IT. I don’t really talk about IT much because it’s nowhere near as interesting as genetically modified foods and corporate malfeasance.

I have actually been a fan of Microsoft for many years. The reason being that I find their software easy to use and relatively effective. I have kept an eye on competing products such as Linux (operating systems) and Open Office (productivity suites), etc. However, in a corporate environment, using Microsoft products has made sense (I know I’m going to get some flack for saying that).

For the first time I find myself strongly anti Microsoft and the reason is that they are trying to force us to move from XP to Vista. Vista sucks. There are a lot of problems with it and it requires a very powerful computer to run properly but it gives very little in return. There is no feature in Vista for which I would give up XP. Now it is not possible to buy XP anymore. I manage a network of over 100 computers, if we change to Vista I will have to throw away all the PCs and buy new ones plus retrain the users, all for absolutely no benefit. This makes me mad. There was a good article on ITWeb about the environmental impact of PCs made obsolete because of Vista.

For now, we buy Vista licences and downgrade to XP. But I’m starting to think there is no reason why we can’t run Ubuntu Linux.

The second thing that is bothering me is the new Office 2007. I hate it. It is so completely different from Office 2003 that I have to retrain all my users if we upgrade. We have no intention of upgrading, however when we buy new machines, we can’t buy Office 2003 because it’s not available anymore. So again, we have to buy Office 2007 licences and downgrade. I’m currently testing Open Office to see if there is anything preventing us from switching.

I hate being forced into something. Microsoft, you have managed to make an enemy of me.

ps. please don’t post comments telling me to go Mac. That is not feasible in a corporate environment.


Comments

7 responses to “Microsoft”

  1. hi dax
    oh my g#$%d!!! i TOTALLY empathise with you.

    when i bought my little laptop (a little bottom of the range Acer which is all my student budget could stretch to) i went to Incredible Corruption. i didn’t want to but they were cheapest.

    the machine came with (surprise, surprise) Vista!! i knew from talking to some computer savvy friends that Vista needs at LEAST 2GB RAM to run smoothly. my little lapop only has 500MB RAM.
    so i said the salesman, will this run okay on Vista… he said, it will be okay for your purposes (i just need Word and the Internet really)…

    got the thing home, watched a DVD that night, when i wanted to watch the rest the next day, Vista didn’t even pick up the DVD drive! and it took about ten minutes to start up. and pages just hung for ages. and i hadn’t loaded any software or data. and of my meagre 80GB hardrive, just Vista was taking up 19GB of that!!!

    had the most insane shouting match back in Incredible Corruption (my boyf and i versus the manager and three sales assistants). during said scream fest, the manager actually said to me:
    “You can’t buy a Citi Golf and expect it to run like a Mercedes”
    I said, no, but if I buy a Citi Golf, I still expect to be able to drive it from A to B. One of the sales assistants finally admitted that they complain in their training sessions that they shouldn’t be selling laptops like mine with Vista on them, but the company ‘has no choice’!?!?!?!

    (They finally agreed to waive their R750 fee to put my OWN copy of XP on the laptop for me. Like, wow, guys, AMAZING service)

    I had to laugh when I saw a month or two later that Microsoft was posting record profits thanks to the amazing SALES of Vista. it’s not being SOLD to us, it’s being rammed down our throats.
    makes me SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO mad.

  2. I think there are a lot of people out there who have had bad Vista experiences. Another lesson from your comment is not to trust Incredible Corruption. Get advice from a PC savvy friend and stick to it.

    2G minimum to run Vista, no quibble, no doubt.

  3. Howzit Dax

    My in-laws have had Vista and they say its slow and they hate it. I’ve still got XP on my machine, and I’m not going to Vista anytime soon (even when I get my new Mac). Question, why do you think Mac’s aren’t feasible for a corporate environment?

  4. Hi Nick

    Bear in mind when I say a corporate environment, I’m not referring to the creative industry, they have been using Mac’s for a long time.

    Mac doesn’t really offer a server option, we run Windows Server 2003 and having PCs allows us to get maximim benefit and compatibility out of our servers. Utilities are easy to come by, finding people to support the network is easy.

    etc etc. There really are a million reasons why PC is better than Mac in a corporate environment. I’m sure that if someone was determined, they could create a Mac corporate environment that works, but in the real world we don’t have time to muck (mac?) about.

  5. Hi Dax,

    As a long time PC user I switched to mac about a year ago and am enjoying it hugely! However I do agree with you on macs not being feasible in a corporate environment. However as I got pissed off with Microsoft many moons ago I switched to Open Office a long time ago and have been using it ever since both personally and on my office PC’s. I even use it on my Mac now. I am a complete convert. my staff use it and I have never even had to show them how as it so closely mimics Office. So I would say go for it! The only way to show Microsoft that people will not stand for their strongarm tactics is to use less of their products. By the way ..I have also had to downgrade all my new PC’s to XP..such a waste of time and resources……

  6. Yolande Parker-Nance

    Hi Dax
    Gosh , for a technophobe like me this article was enlightning. I am in the process of upgrading PC and laptop so thanks for the info.
    Yolande

  7. Ubuntu 8.10 has just been released http://www.ubuntu.com