--Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Fan
ONE of our regulars and contributors, The Mad Hatter, has composed a rant about what some of us characterise of the Epic Troll -- a Microsoft troll masquerading as a GNU/Linux user. We had a lot of such trolling here yesterday. It is a known debating technique whose formula goes something along the lines of (there are variations): "I am/used to be X, but... [something negative about X]." Richard Dawkins did a whole talk about this pattern.
This is not at all surprising. Entrepreneur shape their corporations in their own image. Some times this is good. Some times this is bad. Microsoft is a good example of an entrepreneur who is insecure, greedy, and lazy. This evaluation is based on Microsoft's actions as a corporation (I have never meet Bill Gates).
Microsoft holds 90 percent of operating system pre-installs. But it is afraid of Linux (and it was afraid of Netscape, and is deathly afraid of Apple). Why? Considering their market share, Linux should be a minor irritant. Instead you get things like the "Get the Facts Campaign", which was so totally ludicrous that they dropped it. But they dropped long after the damage was done - they made themselves a laughing stock with that campaign.
Another example is the "Laptop Hunters" campaign. Why is Microsoft so scared of Apple? Apple's market share is so small, that the company is only a pimple on the face of IT. True, it's an expanding pimple, but 6 percent? Why even dignify it with a response? Because they don't think they can compete with Apple. Heck, look at the Amazon top 100 list of computers. About the only ones that sell for more than $1000,00 are made by Apple. Microsoft doesn't think that they can deliver an operating system that will make a computer worth more that $1000,00 to consumers.
And then there's ODF support, or should I say lack of support. Microsoft is the only ODF implementer that messed up the implementation. It wasn't for lack of talent, Microsoft has talented employees. Microsoft is scared of ODF, because it can be used (in implemented by a company that isn't deliberately trying to break it) in a wide range of software. No Lock-In. Microsoft doesn't want this. They want people to use Microsoft XML (Microsoft calls it Office Open XML, but while it may be used by Office, it isn't Open since it's impossible for anyone else to implement). If they are using Microsoft XML, they are locked into Microsoft Office. They are scared that given the option, people will use software from other vendors. They are so insecure that they don't believe that they can compete in the Office Suite market without lock in.
Microsoft doesn't want component manufacturers to release their hardware specifications. If component manufacturers do release the specifications, another operating system might be able to use that hardware, and Microsoft doesn't believe that they can compete in the operating system market. So the company tries to avoid having to compete, but making it hard for other operating systems to use the hardware.
Microsoft is greedy. Why would a company sell a sub-standard operating system (Windows Vista 7 for Netbooks) and encourage people to upgrade? Who would produce six different versions of the same operating system, with different capabilities, using 99.99% the same source code, and prices ranging from $114.00 to $340.00? Greed.
Again, Microsoft is greedy. When they eliminated floppy disks as an install medium for compact discs the price of Windows increased, even though the install medium price dropped dramatically.
Microsoft is lazy. Why offer 6 versions of desktop Windows, and 4 or 5 versions of Server Windows, all of which use virtually the same source code? Often the only difference between versions is that one version has an artificial limit of some sort (such as number of users) while the next one doesn't. But it's easier to do that, than to design something that truly is different, with new features that would attract more customers.
Microsoft is lazy. Rather than producing the best operating system in the world, one that would have users beating a path to their door, they produce an operating system that is pedestrian, and then try to block anyone else from the market by exclusionary deals and "Marketing Bonuses".
And of course we have the Internet. Microsoft would rather pay trolls to trash Linux and OSX, rather than producing something that is so much better than Linux or OSX, that you'd be crazy to use either. They would rather use advertising money to "bend editorial views" than produce something that reviewers would love.
With the amount of talent that Microsoft employs, they should be able to totally blow away Apple, totally blow away Linux, and make users so happy that they'd be crazy to use anything other than Windows. They could do this. But they are too insecure, too greedy, and too lazy to do this.
And if they don't change, it is going to kill the company. Read their SEC filings, the company is in bad shape. Not as bad as GM or Chrysler, but unless something is done, the company is headed for deep trouble. The current management team is a large part of this, They were hand picked by the company founder, and reflect his views. Steve Ballmer is a good salesman. He might be a great salesman. But as a company manager, he's terrible.
So, yes. You get a lot of trolls. People who say, "I've been running Linux for 5 years, and it's really not that good," because Microsoft would rather encourage trolls, than make a great product. If you check the Apple news sources and blogs, you see the exact same sort of posts, stating that OSX just doesn't work as well as Windows, that it doesn't support the right software, that it isn't really reliable, etc. Whether it's Linux or Apple that they are attacking, all of these people are lying. The proof is in the targets. Microsoft thinks that Apple and Linux are dangerous. They don't think that the BSD based operating systems are, so they don't get attacked in the same way, or at the same level. They don't think that Solaris is dangerous either, and you'll note in the Solaris blogs that you don't see this sort of attack very much either. You will if they decide either BSD or Solaris is dangerous.
And it's a terrible waste. Because Microsoft, if it wanted, could produce something fantastic. They have the talent. They have the capabilities. They don't have the drive.
Until they get the drive, I'll avoid using Microsoft products, and I'll advise others not to. And when I see trolls, I'll fight them in the forums. I hate dishonesty.
Comments
G. Michaels
2009-06-07 09:35:08
We'll talk about the other stuff later... I'm still laughing at the whole Gentoo User -> Sabayon User -> OMG HE IS NYMSHIFTING KILL KILL KILL deal. I actually almost split my sides (and half-choked on a brownie I was eating, I swear) when I saw you were pointing at that thing you wrote to defend your friend "twitter". You know, "twitter" from Slashdot and his 24 close friends. I'm sure you didn't intend that to be humorous, but oh God... "nymshifters don't deserve attention" or whatever it was you said has got to be the funniest thing ever!
Sabayon User (Sabayon == Gentoo, kthx)
2009-06-08 18:26:05
If he has to go to these lengths.
Yggdrasil
2009-06-06 23:46:14
I must also clarify that I have never claimed to be a Linux supporter. I define that as someone who prefers to use Linux a majority of the time. I have used Linux in the past and do keep a copy installed on a spare machine for my own purposes. However, I'm disappointed with most aspects of Linux, as I have been since my first encounter with it in 1998. I have never had a positive opinion about it based on using it first hand, nor do I use it for my daily tasks, so the formula you cite would not apply to me. Yet, this particular formula does not fit most Linux zealots to a tee, yourself excluded.
Paul Gaskin
2009-06-09 03:38:09
aeshna23
2009-06-07 12:55:18
Paul Gaskin
2009-06-09 03:41:31
Roy Schestowitz
2009-06-09 05:13:35
aeshna23
2009-06-07 12:49:04
And Mad Hatter's condemnation of the price of the Window OS going up after the switch to CD installation is just flat out silly. They are two unrelated events and one happened after the other. Mad Hat desperately needs to look up the most useful Latin phase in the English dictionary: post hoc ergo propter hoc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc).
Rather than making irrelevant comments about Microsoft pricing scheme, we should focus on the superiority of FOSS to the proprietary model of software development.
On the other hand, I did enjoy Mad Hatter's rhetorical taunt that Microsoft has the capacity to make a good OS if it wished. I doubt that's true given Microsoft's proprietary model of software development and Microsoft's need to be consistent with past bad decision. I suspect that Mad Hatter shares this doubt.
DOUGman
2009-06-06 20:52:18
D.
Sir Sane
2009-06-07 00:47:09
DOUGman
2009-06-07 00:54:49
Paul Gaskin
2009-06-09 03:32:32
http://linsux.org/index.php/topic,1138.0.html
Paul Gaskin
2009-06-09 03:36:34
To save people the trouble of reading this drivel, and in case linsux.org scrubs it, "Sir_Sane" wrote: " N****rs. I can't stand them. I just can't."
Roy Schestowitz
2009-06-09 05:08:09
Ed Landaveri
2009-06-09 04:14:44
Man these trolls must thank you because you're giving them work! Thanks to you these "people" get paid. Thus they attack you as well as any respectable site that supports the truth.
Marketing and proprietary companies will NEVER be able to create as superior operating system && || apps that FLOSS! Your site is just remembering the whole world what Microsoft's being doing for decades.
"I have never had a positive opinion about it based on using it first hand, nor do I use it for my daily tasks" --sure if he's been using Linux since 1998 as Yggdrasil claims -he's just a liar that has never been able to comprehend Linux great advantage "FREEDOM" and "CHOICE". I don't believe his claims. He's just another troll and he knows it.
The people I have helped to migrate to FLOSS some of them reluctantly, have ended up appreciate Linux and FLOSS. The user is in control. No more slowing down, forced upgrades && immune to viruses && spyware. Can Windows users boast about this? NO! NEVER! The only think they regret is not having it do it before. They also are talking to relatives && friends regarding FREEDOM and this is what scares Microsoft over ten years already.
@ "Sir" "Sane" though I doubt both terms. Users of this blog have their opinions formed over the years by seeing over and over the same anti-competitive && monopolistic Microsoft behavior where profits are first && customer last. It's not sane to defend a company like that. No matter how hard the company that pays this trolls tries to rewrite history.This site is one of the few that exposes the truth, and it seems truth hurts to some. So keep on writing the next attack so your master can send you the next check!
eet
2009-06-08 21:41:03
Penguin Pete
2009-06-09 10:41:08
Roy Schestowitz
2009-06-09 10:44:13