50 Years of Sabotage and a Gut Punch to Computer Science (and Science in General)
Zombie culture of Microsoft may very well come to an end
Microsoft layoffs and shut-downs are in the news again. But Microsoft PR[opaganda] is clogging up news wires. For over a year already they planned to use an anniversary (like the EPO did before turning 50) to shovel up lies and propaganda about the past. It's known as "rewriting history". Those who are rich can afford to do it. Sometimes it's known as revisionism - a one-word term rather than two ("rewriting history").
In my experience, having coded since a young age (probably about 12 or 13), Microsoft has nothing to offer and never had anything to offer. Its mediocre "products" were lots of hype and the company's political operations managed to convince schools to train pupils in "sub par software", as a friend put it. Prior to that I remember my school teaching with some non-Microsoft products. That was in the 80s and early 90s. There was also focus on concepts (floppy disks, LOGO, running DOS commands and so on).
Writing about the "50" thing would likely give Microsoft attention it otherwise does not get/deserve. Let's think of that as a point where Microsoft is tail-spinning, much like IBM at 100. It's hard to envision Windows turning things around. Tomorrow statCounter will begin showing new statistics for April so we expect considerable losses for Windows to become more apparent.
As an associate of ours put it: "Many, including myself, object to the cult-like nature of the Windows reseller community. Firstly, they are isolated by their own separate technology which interoperates poorly on all levels with other operating systems and application software, and even with different versions of their own products. That is the most immediate, concrete harm. Secondly, they are further isolated from traditional computer science through their own, odd vocabulary and lack of awareness of traditional computer science terminology. There are also strong ethical reasons to eschew the infamous work culture of that whole crowd. That includes the reduced self-determination and independence which their products force onto the market."
In the past decade or two people's job prospects improved if they knew "UNIX-like" of GNU/Linux systems. That's what more and more companies used (or looked for). Will we get back to science-based computing rather than cult-like following? █