Why doesn't Microsoft get any love?

[88keys]

Been thinking about this because I was somewhat surprised to see how quickly the Xbox One fell out of favor to the PS4 in this generation of consoles.

Which has lead me to thinking about Microsoft's competitors and how they seem to have their die hard fans no matter how badly they screw up.

Whether it's Nintendo, Apple or Sony; it seems like these companies have always had a solid and vocal group of people who will express their support no matter what. While Microsoft only seems to get a lukewarm reception when they release a good product (Windows 7, and XP). But it's the end of the world when a Windows (8, Vista, ME) is released.

Not really defending Microsoft here. I think that their new CEO might have some good ideas and maybe they are finally going to realize that they can't expect the whole world to fork out a pile of cash every 3 years for a brand new OS. But we'll see.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Ever since M$ wanted to charge for Xbox live, I laughed at them. I have no direct qualms with them though. As much as I'm not a fan of their OS changes and M$ Office changes.

No different than Android vs. iPhone, no?

 

[William Gaatjes]

Well, although i sometimes do not like some design decisions, i have to say when looking back, microsoft created a fertile ground for very successful hardware. Microsoft helped to create an entire eco system of very advanced electronics put to good use. Their operating systems since Windows 95 have been pretty good.

The only really big flaw they ever made was to introduce techniques like active x to home users and other means like remote control and execution of scripts ( in the past) . Techniques like that should have remained to an internal (business) network use only. If they pushed out home users windows versions and home users windows networks without such techniques onboard (but available as separate download when required, leaving the security details and responsibility with the users) windows would have had a much better reputation as being a stable and secure os.
EDIT:
And of course closed TCP/IP ports....
\EDIT

During the W98SE days the first thing i did was get rid IE, use a software firewall and the good old opera browser (sniff, what have they done to you , my lovely :'( ).
Then i made the step to W2000, Windows XP SP2 and now Windows7 64 bit.
I must say, i always had to invest a little time to get to know the flaws of windows but i have a pretty good safety record, only 2 virus infections and both where captured by either my firewall or my virus scanner. Although i really have to find out all the details again about the windows 7 firewall.

With respect that people have to pay for a xbox live description, i do not see the issue, steam costs money, WOW costs money... Good service just costs money.

Although, i do would like if they could give an option not an LIVE ID for everything. Just give the option for separate services available and the option for separate passwords/ logins if desired by the user. Everything under a single password is not a good idea. Human nature is a bitch.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Funny I trust MS with my data far more than I trust Apple and/or Google. Maybe things will change soon.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Ever since M$ wanted to charge for Xbox live, I laughed at them. I have no direct qualms with them though. As much as I'm not a fan of their OS changes and M$ Office changes.

No different than Android vs. iPhone, no?

Xbox Live was worth $40/year when I was a gamer. Now that I have young kids, I can't even watch TV unless they're asleep.

Microsoft as a company has a lot of good products. As far as their Operating System teams go...they've lacked in security for years and their browser security is even more of a nightmare. I think for the revenue they have coming in, they could do more R&D and clean up those critical areas, but closing security holes often breaks software coded around the flaws.

As for Xbox....I plan on getting an Xbox One when I free up time to play and can finish with a lot of my current home projects. It may be a few years, but it'll happen.

 

[smackababy]

I think most people dislike MS because they simply aren't as tech savvy as they like to believe. These are the same people who blame MS for Vista performing poorly on the XP machine they bought in 2002 and few companies actually putting out drivers.

A lot of people also fall prey to the "it isn't popular, therefore it isn't good" syndrome. Their marketing team simply doesn't promote a lot of their failures (Zune player, for example).

Also, despite the success of the PS4, the Xbox One is far from a failure. In fact, it is selling better than the 360 did in this period. I know, "the PS4 is killing MS! omg". They aren't hurting.

And, they are killing it on the enterprise market. That is their real bread and butter.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Funny I trust MS with my data far more than I trust Apple and/or Google. Maybe things will change soon.

Google is just echelon. How else did they get so big so fast infiltrating everywhere. With every government being okay with it ?

I am sure that when needed the data they have can be filtered for national security reasons or to counter act terrorism. I do not mind. With all my technical and physics and biological interests and googling for it, i do would be surprised if i did not raise a flag or two...

 

[Baasha]

Microsoft had enormous respect when Gates was at the helm. When Ballmer took over, it went to hell in a hand basket because of his arrogance. This is the problem when you have a sales guy head a tech company.

Thankfully, MS is gaining back a lot of the respect among the tech world due to the new CEO, Satya Nadella, a technologist himself.

Microsoft at one time was worth over half a trillion dollars (1999) and they were unstoppable. After the 2001 tech bubble burst, it went downhill fast thanks to Ballmer's ridiculous mismanagement. Remember, this guy laughed at Google's search team, laughed at the iPhone and was miserably wrong on both counts.

Nadella is more humble despite heading one of their most successful units - Azure.

It's too early to tell, but my hunch is that with Win 10, MS will come back with a bang.

 

[smackababy]

Microsoft had enormous respect when Gates was at the helm. When Ballmer took over, it went to hell in a hand basket because of his arrogance. This is the problem when you have a sales guy head a tech company.

Thankfully, MS is gaining back a lot of the respect among the tech world due to the new CEO, Satya Nadella, a technologist himself.

Microsoft at one time was worth over half a trillion dollars (1999) and they were unstoppable. After the 2001 tech bubble burst, it went downhill fast thanks to Ballmer's ridiculous mismanagement. Remember, this guy laughed at Google's search team, laughed at the iPhone and was miserably wrong on both counts.

Nadella is more humble despite heading one of their most successful units - Azure.

It's too early to tell, but my hunch is that with Win 10, MS will come back with a bang.

You do realize some of MS's biggest successes were under Ballmer's direction right? He was head of the .NET team. He was in charge with XP. As far as "mismanagement", he has managed MS pretty well.

Also, what industry "expert" didn't laugh at Google when they started or the iPhone? A website who's entire purpose is to direct you to a different site? That sounded like a total failure when Google was a start up. A smart phone for people who don't need a smart phone? Who is going to pay the money for that?

 

[Markbnj]

Thankfully, MS is gaining back a lot of the respect among the tech world due to the new CEO, Satya Nadella, a technologist himself.

It is, I agree. But that doesn't change the fundamental problem. Nadella said himself in an interview a couple of days ago that the mobile ship had sailed. They missed it. So now their next mission can be summed up as "take care of our enterprise customers and don't miss the next big thing." Not super comforting.

 

[Denly]

I have ton of respect to MS, all my MS product(office, O/S) are legit. I appreciate the relatively pain free experience the eco system provided. It is stable, simple and powerful. it will work with the latest software/hardware as well as the one from 10+ years ago.

They made some great hardware as well, explorer mouse series is/was some of the best general purpose mouse ever. My 10yr old recharge able explorer still rock, my explorer touch at work still like new after 2 yrs.

WP is super fast and stable, it just work and almost never hang and need reboot.

They f'd up make things like WP7 and W8.1 but which company don't make bad decisions?

I am happy to pay a small fee for their product.

 

[Denly]

It is, I agree. But that doesn't change the fundamental problem. Nadella said himself in an interview a couple of days ago that the mobile ship had sailed. They missed it. So now their next mission can be summed up as "take care of our enterprise customers and don't miss the next big thing." Not super comforting.

Nadella also said they're not giving up WP.

 

[mmntech]

Ever since M$ wanted to charge for Xbox live, I laughed at them?

PSN charges for online multiplayer now. The problem with Xbox Live was they used to throw up other online services behind that paywall. Including Netflix. Basically making you pay for the privilege to use something you already pay for. Fortunately, they dropped that with the Xbox One.

 

[Markbnj]

Nadella also said they're not giving up WP.

Saying that the ship has sailed is as much as saying they are, though. 3% share is not enough to build an ecosystem on.

 

[quikah]

It was the anti-trust lawsuit (and the strategy that caused it). It soured a bunch of tech people on them. Also, Ballmer has a very abrasive personality, that doesn't not get you many die-hard fans.

IMO, so far this year, MS is the only company doing anything interesting. Google I/O was beyond boring. Apple is all about the watch. MS build and Ignite conferences were pretty interesting, almost exciting.

 

[lxskllr]

3% share is not enough to build an ecosystem on.

Then I'd be twice as popular!

:^D

 

[Denly]

Saying that the ship has sailed is as much as saying they are, though. 3% share is not enough to build an ecosystem on.

See if W10 help, WP is doing very well in EU and other part of the world except US/China/Jap.

IOS has a great ecosystem with 15%.

 

[Sonikku]

Been thinking about this because I was somewhat surprised to see how quickly the Xbox One fell out of favor to the PS4 in this generation of consoles.

Which has lead me to thinking about Microsoft's competitors and how they seem to have their die hard fans no matter how badly they screw up.

Whether it's Nintendo, Apple or Sony; it seems like these companies have always had a solid and vocal group of people who will express their support no matter what. While Microsoft only seems to get a lukewarm reception when they release a good product (Windows 7, and XP). But it's the end of the world when a Windows (8, Vista, ME) is released.

Not really defending Microsoft here. I think that their new CEO might have some good ideas and maybe they are finally going to realize that they can't expect the whole world to fork out a pile of cash every 3 years for a brand new OS. But we'll see.

Microsoft did very well with the 360 even despite the red ring fiasco. They did so well with it that you could almost say the Xbox 360 is the reason the PS4 is so good. That humbling experience broke Sony's hubris just enough that they finally started to care about making an easy to develop for machine with good specs all for a reasonable price. ($400 for the 4 vs $600 for the 3) Before that it was more of a "Here it is, bow down and respect" attitude. Hard to develop for? Deal with it! We're #1! Not so much any more. They went all out.

As for apathy over the xbone, Microsoft brought that on themselves. The most obvious point is perhaps that they just misread the market like Nintendo did, going so far as to mandate an accessory not everyone cares about. They went from charging $400 in better times for the premium 360 to charging $500 for the Xbone in a down economy. When you charge more for a lower spec machine your "But, Kinect" talking point better persuade consumers to your camp, or else the "More power, lower price" talking point is going to demolish you in gamer circles and message boards everywhere.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, that was just the beginning. Sony spent E3 telling gamers all the things their system can do. Microsoft spent E3 telling gamers all the things their system couldn't do. Used games? Nope. No always on broadband connection? Just stick with the 360! Making a console go belly up the instant there's an interruption with your internet service or server issues was so ludicrous that they sent their own fans right into Sony's arms.

Thankfully, in the months to follow Microsoft gradually weened themselves off from some of the more boneheaded ideas. But they had still blown their biggest chance to hype up gamers on their product and the damage was done. Now the xbone is basically a slightly cheaper slightly weaker PS4. Better than where they were at, but at this point I'm not sure why it needs to exist or how saving myself $50 is worth having to upscale all my games to my televisions native resolution. Basically, the Xbone situation wasn't just a "let's all gang up on Microsoft for no reason because they're Microsoft" deal. They really did go out of their way to shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[BoberFett]

MS is no longer the evil empire they once were. Apple makes far more profit, and Google has more of your data.

Except for the horrific Metro interface, Windows 8 is actually a great operating system. I'm really looking forward to Windows 10. I prefer Xbox to PS, and what MS did for gaming with DirectX was phenomenal.

There may have been a time to hate MS, but I think that time has passed.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Microsoft had enormous respect when Gates was at the helm. When Ballmer took over, it went to hell in a hand basket because of his arrogance. This is the problem when you have a sales guy head a tech company.

Thankfully, MS is gaining back a lot of the respect among the tech world due to the new CEO, Satya Nadella, a technologist himself.

Microsoft at one time was worth over half a trillion dollars (1999) and they were unstoppable. After the 2001 tech bubble burst, it went downhill fast thanks to Ballmer's ridiculous mismanagement. Remember, this guy laughed at Google's search team, laughed at the iPhone and was miserably wrong on both counts.

Nadella is more humble despite heading one of their most successful units - Azure.

It's too early to tell, but my hunch is that with Win 10, MS will come back with a bang.

I remember a time years ago so MS guys stopped by my wireless store to talk to the sales people about windows mobile. I remember them sitting in my office showing me some HTC piece of crap and they kept saying "look it works just like your desktop". I agreed because it was similar to XP but I did point out that I didn't have a mouse or in some cases I didn't have a mouse and I didn't have a proper keyboard.

 

[Markbnj]

IOS has a great ecosystem with 15%.

Heh, they didn't build that ecosystem with 15%. 15% is what they have left.

 

[yuchai]

They make themselves easy to be hated.

I have a Surface Pro 2, which is an excellent tablet by the way. My plan was to use my Silicondust HDHomerun prime CableCard tuner to stream live TV on the tablet, and also record stuff so I can watch on my commute.

Did not work because Microsoft didn't bother enabling HDCP support for displayport in Windows Media Center, and the SP2's built-in display is apparently connected using that connection. My older laptop (a crappy lenovo x120e) can do this, but I cannot do it with my brand new Microsoft tablet. WTF? Btw, did i mention that I actually paid $$ to buy Media Center for Windows 8 just for this function?

Issue has been around for years (since Windows 7 days), but Microsoft basically ignores all of the users that are having issues. My guess is that it takes a minimal amount of time for them to fix it. It's an absolute slap in the face for people who value using CableCard tuners with WMC.

So despite the fact that I love the SP2 a lot, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Anyway they're completely getting rid of WMC in Windows 10. Why would I ever upgrade to that again? They are not likely going to add anything of significant value to me, so it's just going to be a net downgrade for me (I still use WMC on my HTPC despite the issues with SP2)

 

[Mai72]

Bill Gates was a stud back in the day. This upset the nerds and they became jealous.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Um Microsoft dominated last generation with Xbox 360.

Also people might hate this but Office 365 is amazing.

 

[Markbnj]

Anyway they're completely getting rid of WMC in Windows 10. Why would I ever upgrade to that again? They are not likely going to add anything of significant value to me, so it's just going to be a net downgrade for me (I still use WMC on my HTPC despite the issues with SP2)

Yeah, I love WMC for Netflix on my Windows 7 PC, but its days are numbered.