Microsoft. A few thoughts for informed consumers.

A while back, Azz posted a thread suggesting people stop using Internet Explorer and adopt an alternative web browser. His reasons were pretty sound technical ones. Personally, I think all Microsoft products have more technical problems than they should. There are bugs and vulnerabilities that get reported from time to time that have existed in Microsoft's code for over 10 years!

In addition to that, if you are reading this and you care about the ethics and morals of companies you deal with (In a similar vein to what the Labour leader said at their recent conference. Not that party politics is relevant here, just an illustration that maybe it is something you should consider.) then here's a blog I wrote on the subject of Microsoft's current record. If you care to go back over their past behaviour, it becomes clear this is business as usual for them. IMHO, their business as usual should be producing polished consumer software products (Customers pay enough for them!!!) not running an extortion racket!

Here's someone else's blog post I read this morning that I thought was interesting. It illustrates that the average user is not as locked in to Microsoft products as they think they are. With a little effort, you can make the break. You just have to decide that you have had enough of shoddy software and shoddier business practices.

Must admit, I am not a fan of Microsoft either. I've never had anything but problems from their products and whenever I've tried to fix the issues I've had tonnes of trouble. Two years ago I got completely fed up and made the break and bought an Apple IMAC. Sure, it was overpriced and I ended up paying more for looks than a super amazing computer but two years on and (touch wood) I'm yet to have any problems.

I'm not exactly a massive apple fan and I'd happily move on from them in the future to Linux but they're certainly better than Microsoft and I'll never go back to them!

The way I see it, Microsoft is mass produce and not especially focussed on quality. Apple is mass produced with much better focus on quality, although some of the stuff that's come out around the OS X Lion release might indicate they're dropping the ball on that one.

The Open Source operating systems (Linux, BSD) are more like hand crafted, limited production products. They might not be a slick and shiny as their mass produced counterparts but the damn well work where it matters.

Yes, I think you've got it spot on there. I think it's a shame that Microsoft and Apple have such a monopoly on the market when it comes to computers just because it means a lot of people don't look any further to see if they can get anything better.