“Whenever I visit Microsoft, I’m always reminded that the Microsoft of reality–at least the Microsoft I see when I talk to the people who actually design, build, and market the company’s technologies and products–is very different from the Microsoft of myth. Before I calculate my Microsoft Report Card, based on my trip to Redmond earlier this week, I’d like to address some of those myths and explain how they vary from the reality I’ve seen firsthand.” Read the rest of the article at ZDNews AnchorDesk.
Meet the Real Microsoft: Why it’s Not What You Think
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Here is a Pro-Microsoft guy.
Microsoft certainly has the funds to buy many companies however, someone has to sell so Microsoft can buy. Even in a publicly traded company you can’t force a person to sell there stock. With some companies, I’m sure that is why they have not been bought out. Another reason is ROI. Assuming that Microsoft could buy them out, what sort of return would they see? What is the risk? Every company does things this way.
Trustworthy computing–Why have we not had this for years? Oh, that’s right. You make more money putting out what is barely acceptable than a top of the line product. Some competition would be sure to make this happen–oh wait, this is Microsoft we are talking about here.
Microsoft wants to capture and sell your personnal information–I don’t think they’ll do that. Just capture it and use it to further strengthen the monopoly that they have. And probably use it to start more monopolies. Why sell critical information to it’s competitors??
Microsoft doesn’t care what you think–obviously they do, somewhat at least. They have to find out what new features they can add to bloat there software even more. How else would they hide the personnal information stealing code?
Sheesh….
Landar
My favorite part is the readers pole about whether “trustworthy computing” is a myth or reality.
MYTH!!!
Love microsoft? Read: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-866086.html
Of course nearly all the people who design and build MS technologies, and many of those who market them, are pleasant, interesting people. It’s the company’s business practices that are the problem.
The author should spend some time talking to the people who craft the EULAs, the attorneys who defended MS’s illegal business practices, the ‘marketing’ staff who apply pressure on OEMs, and so on. Even if he did meet the last group, he wouldn’t be able to have any meaningful dialogue with them, because the (probably illegal) OEM agreements are secret and cannot be disclosed to him.
Linking to these stories does at least give us a view of how the wider world (and journalists who’ve been given a free lunch) perceive MS – but it’s hardly OS News. I do like it when OSnews runs real news about MS – but this story does not measure up.
The biggest “Myth” that he tries to debunk is the one that microsoft is not after our personal information. Not one major corporation has made a concerted effort to protect, or stop the mining of, personal data. Whether that be purchasing/browsing habits or how many times we log into a web page. Amazon.com, Comcast, AOL/TimeWarner among others, have all been caught doing this. Why would Microsoft be any different?
Microsoft is an also-ran in consumer financial software, databases, enterprise computing, game consoles, game software, and internet services?
Are we talking about the same company!?!??
I wouldn’t call them an also-ran, but they haven’t managed to gain control (or majority market share) of any of those markets (they’re closer in some than others). Of course, they DID try to buy Intuit to get rid of that pesky issue with financial software, but we all know where that went.
Hmmm … Ok, so the XBox hasn’t taken the world by storm … yet. PlayStation2 wasn’t exactly a raging success right out of the starting gates, either.
One of the killer/must-have games, exclusively for the XBox is “Halo.” Bungie originally demoed that at MacWorld … Steve Jobs introduced it – it was supposed to be released on the Mac, first … Along comes Microsoft. Bill G. goes through his couch cushions and comes up with the cash to purchase Bungie outright and, oops, make “Halo” an XBox only title.
If Microsoft decides that it really and truly wants the lion’s share of any market, game console, gaming software, whatever, they’ll just go and do it.
Dave your not paying attention are you? PS2 had launch problems because it didn’t have enough to go around at first. Now that there are enough to go around it was the highest selling system this past christmas season (sold as many units nationwide as xbox and gamecube COMBINED). It set a record for world wide sales its first year (ps1 has still sold more units, but it never had as good of a year, especially its first year). Not that the xbox isn’t selling well, it just isn’t nearly as high as ps2 (its mac, linux, be and amiga compared to ps2 as windows). Course not as many killer xbox only games are out yet (only 3 or 4 must have xbox only titles so far). And yes halo was coming to the mac first, but only by 1 week, then pc and xbox shortly after. btw if you did pay attention to gaming you’d know big publishers buying small ones is common, sony did it to 989, psygnosis, single track, verant, etc. so don’t act like its only microsoft. As for them taking the lion’s share of the market in whatever market they want you could chalk it up to good marketing and good products (btw you could say the same thing about sony, they came out of no where in the 80s to control major market share in stereos, tvs, vcrs, now they’ve added phones, computers, monitors and consoles). As for trying to buy intuit it proves ms isn’t all powerful, if they were they’d own intuit and the personal finance market, instead they’re only number 2. Hey linux_baby notice that at the end of that not-so scathing article about ms you link to it says pretty much the same thing about lycos and yahoo!, guess they’re evil too huh? course yahoo! is worse (about free email) imo, because I use a yahoo account as my main email and the only reason I picked it over hotmail or the millions of other free emails out there was so I could check it using outlook, now in order to do that I’d have to pay (bait and switch, afaic).
The generally kind, considerate, thoughtful & polite responses.
No, really.
>>Hmmm … Ok, so the XBox hasn’t taken the world by storm … yet. PlayStation2 wasn’t exactly a raging success right out of the starting gates, either.<<
Well being that the last 2 X-Mas’ showed the PS2 as the #1 selling Game Console, and Sony has already sold millions of units and Microsoft is having a hard time penetrating the Japanese market, which is the most important gaming market in the world, and that is Sony’s and Nintendo’s turf! When I was in the US prior to this last X-Mas I even noticed kids playing with the PS2 Demo machines more than the Xbox demo machines, I am not sure why, but that gives me an indication that the PS2 is just more popular and has a real footing in the game console market. And with kids (like my brother) that already owned a PlayStation and have lots of games that are already compatible to the PS2, it just makes more sense to go that route. if you’re new to the game console, then it shouldn’t matter.
Read the rest of the story here…
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/?id=16708
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/?id=16776
Mindcraft anyone?
Sometimes I wonder how much they’re getting paid by MS to write
this stuff *L*.
hey fud not only does ms control zdnet (and their parent company cnet) but they control you while you sleep. so start tying yourself down before you doze off.
Cattbemac I’d have to disagree about japan being the most important console market. It was, but if you look at potential growth japan is pretty much dead. Their console sales have stagnated over the last 5 years (but espeically in the last 2 to 3), where as the US, europe (espcially former soviet block countries) and parts of north africa are going up (before 1995 20% penatration into us homes was good, after ps1’s phenominal run (which is continuing, it was #2 console this past season) we’re looking at closer to 35% being the goal). You (and half the gaming public) need to realize japan isn’t the be all end all of console gaming any more. Now its just another territory.
“Hey fud not only does ms control zdnet (and their parent company cnet) but they control you while you sleep. so start tying yourself down before you doze off.”
No I swtiched to Debian completely the other day after I had
a fall out with XP :0) I can pretty much run all the windohs
apps I need with Wine (with a little tweaking). As for
other people using Debian as a desktop I wouldn’t suggest it
to the weak at heart. It was a bear to get the system up and
running on my laptop (which I basically use as my main desktop).
However, it is now running and supports most of the multimedia
bullcrap a person would expect under Windohs. I probably won’t have major
worries about upgrading considering 1) I don’t have to pay an
arm and a leg for it (what another $300 upgrade for windows already?
hah hah I feel sorry for you fool). 2) I can modify the source if
something sucks instead of pleading with the vendor 3) the system
uses apt-get so upgrades/updates are fairly easy and painless (unlike
a few other Linux distros I played with).
What I would suggest is while people continue to use windows
they keep an eye out for possible replacements. Why? Look at the
SSSCA. Reminds me of the speak-writes in George Orwell’s 1984. Big Brother
(wether or not it is the Gov. or a Corp.) will know everything you
do. What movies you watch, what websites you visit, wether or not you
are using offical authorized/approved software. It wouldn’t take much for
Microsoft to implement such as system (wether under their own inititive, at
the behest of another company, or the Gov). They already have hidden indices
tracking your every movement. Just nothing yet to tie it into a central data
store. Just look at how efficent and easy to miss current Spyware is.
Run AdAware and see how many Spyware proggies are hitching a ride on your
Windohs system.
If the common user doesn’t mind such monitoring fine. Their
loss. I could care less. However, I see absolutely no reason
why I should be subjected to that monitoring tho. Thats the
kind of bullcrap they pull in China not here.
Well thats it for my rant.
I have been to Microsoft on several occasions. Sometimes for as much as a week. I must admit, that they give you first class treatment (but then again if the company you represent is bringing them millions…) While the employees are nice, decent people, there is a lot that goes on behind closed doors.
The higher ranked deal makers at MSFT are vicious. They can buy or destroy anything they want and can be very dangerous. It is these people who have gotten MSFT in deep anti-trust legal trouble.
Microsoft could be a great, wonderful company but it is NOT. Overall, the harm MSFT does to the industry outweigh the good. Perhaps after the remedy trial, they will be straightened out to a bit.
Make no mistake, it is clear to me that this guy is so full of the Redmond Kool-Aid, it is coming out of his ears.
ciao
yc
I have tried the MSN services recently and honestly I haven’t been that much impressed. They ask for an email adress, your name, and where you come from. After this, you create your own passport with username and a password. If there’s one e-business that doesn’t ask the same kind of information, please show it to me. Who said you could not cheat with MS passport registration process? Everybody can do that!
So if you feel paranoid, just go to the nearest internet cafe, register to MS passport, claim to live in Tanzania while you’re a full-blend Oregonian, and click on register!!!
Plus, I must admit the customized experience on MSN is really interesting. After the death of Altavista as a general-purpose portal, MSN really beats them all. It has a neat look, some interesting content, a so-so search engine, and does not have the Lycos-I-am-a-30-years-old-teen style and content. I’m not usually a big Microsoft advocate, but I have eyes to see, and I don’t think these guys are the real enemmy out there.
First off damn you have some major trust issues going on. Secondly I bet it was debian that messed up xp (not a self implode). Thirdly most of the spyware out there isn’t by ms (I don’t know any spyware by ms come to think of it, unless your pulling that whole hidden folder thing out). Fourthly if linux is as great as all the linux geeks say why are you running wine and those nasty ms progs? Fifthly even the xp pro upgrade is 200, not 300. Sixthly being able to modify the source if you find something you don’t like is great, if your a programmer with a lot of extra time on their hands, for everyone else it doesn’t matter. I would like to mention that if you have cable tv or satalite “big brother” can already track what your watching and when, and since a lot of webistes now have tracking bugs even in linux you can get tracked (course if as many people used linux as use windows maybe some spyware would be written for it specificly, but since its a boutique os no ones bothered, yet). Keep blaming ms, or some other unseen enemy and you won’t have to face the fact that your not important enough to be tracked.
I have a a great realization of the gaming console and what is going on. I grew up a gaming nut and at one time in my peak of gaming I had 6 systems tied to one TV, they were Atari 2600, 5200, NES, TurboGrafix 16, Sega Master, and Genesis! Now most of the systems were handed down to my little brother (age 14) who now has extended the inventory (with my help and Santa Claus) SNES, PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, and PS2. Hard to believe, but his advantage is that our dad likes video gaming alot and considers it something to that of fishing, and actually has a fishing game (which is pretty cool). Though I am not a game freak like I was 10 years ago, I do keep up with what is going on in the gaming market. I can admit my prediction that the Dreamcast would be a major hit, and it was in Japan, but nowhere else. The bottomline is that Japan (and this always made me mad) would get all the great stuff first and then we in the US 6 months later. Japan no matter what will be the model market and a test market on top of that. They influence the gaming market worldwide. Microsoft’s Xbox (other than old Atari) is the first system in years to be released in the US first (makes sense though since MS calls US home:-). Fact is that Sony will be hard to beat in the gaming market, I thought Sega could do it, but I was sure fooled! The PS2 is already the #1 system in the US and Japan, and with the original PlayStation’s influence, just makes it harder to tackle the game console market!
I’m sorry, but it’s just reality! But maybe MS and the Xbox wil prove us wrong, but I’m not willing to bet on it just yet!
M$ doesn’t want your personal information?
http://fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml
’nuff said
lol is that the best you’ve got? a bunch of cryptic files that have been common knowledge for years? whats next your gonna tell us the cutting edge theory about a shooter on the grassy knoll?
Your post proved my point, look at the tg16 and dreamcast. Failures in the us (although the dreamcast isn’t nearly as big a failure as some would believe), but huge in japan. Neither one made a profit. Japan isn’t life or death of a console any more, its just a market. As for systems, since I got my first console (1984, I was 4, played dragons lair at the arcade when I was 3) we’ve (my older brother and myself, current systems could include our roomate) had 4 atari 2600s, 3 nintendos, 3 gameboys (original), 2 gamegears, 1 turboexpress (that thing owned), 1 atari lynx, 1 gameboy color, 2 game boy advanced, snes, genesis, with 32x and cd, both types of master system, tg16 including the cd, 2 n64, 3 playstations, atari jaguar, 2 x-eyes (jvc brand sega genesis/cd combo unit), 1 cdx (sega brand genesis/cd, also could be used as portable cdplayer), 2 ps2, 2 dreamcast, 2 saturn, 1 xbox. Oh I also sold games for a living, so I might know a thing or two myself. As for looking at the numbers, you obviously didn’t. The ps2 may have been the highest selling system last year (in us and japan), but it isn’t the #1 system…yet. the ps1’s installed base is still at least another huge year higher, so it is still the #1 console (if your talking fastest growing its #3 as of last month, ps2 is #1, then #2 xbox, then ps1 then gba then gamecube). Another good sign at the us’s influence in consoles is the fact that metal gear solid 2 came out here first (they say its because the original sold better in the us, which is true, but thats because they’re are more “installed” systems here than japan, ratio of “installed” systems to games sold (for mgs) was higher in japan though). Volume is king, and the us has more “gaming” households than japan (europe is gaining on japan) which is why japan is just another market now. but hey keep believing the us is the inferior market and sony and nintendo will gladly continue to treat you like a second class customer while they get richer off you then they do off their own countrymen (then again japan does that type of thing, they sell their goods around the world with no major extra taxes, while they charge a large luxery tax for all foreign cars and electronics).