Denial
Excerpt:
Maybe I’m like that guy with the hammer, to whom everything looks like a nail, but I can’t help noticing that once again Microsoft seems to be following Apple’s lead
Read full article: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/microsoft-is-pulling-out-of-ces-and-its-not-a-good-thing/5517?tag=nl.e064
But, they’re really bad at it.
People don’t want to be screwed and controlled. Microsoft lost touch with it’s customers with Vista. XP was the best thing they ever managed to produce, and dozens of Linux Distributions are simpler, faster, more secure, and more reliable.
Microsoft is losing the middleground. Let me explain.
There were 3 kinds of OSes.
1) The OS for total idiots who are such incredible idiots that they don’t realize their OS is damn near useless. They can’t understand more complex ideas, so they prefer an OS that doesn’t allow them. MacOS. iPhone. Those people… They don’t understand what they are missing, because they’re too stupid to understand anything more complex. They have a pile of money to burn on looking cool. Stupidity is expensive.
2) The OS for people who want to get shit done, but don’t want to hand-build every tool they use from scratch. They want a reliable tool they can go to the store, buy, take home, and it just works. They can get shit done now.
3) The OS of smart nerds with lots of time on their hands. It is flawless and perfect. Every detail exactly as wanted, because the owner caused it to be so. A lot of work that most people don’t have the time or smarts to involve themselves with. Linux.
Microsoft owned the number 2 spot. But, their products encouraged people to get dumber. They created too many crutches that got in the way of actually learning how the Computer works. You can’t get a straight answer to a question, because there isn’t one anymore. The crutches have muddied the water so badly, you can’t learn.
Their customers became MacOS customers. Their product became far too focused on the crutches, and it became unsuitable for the people who wanted to get shit done with the least hassle, because the crutches don’t help, they hinder. It slows down productivity, which is bad for business. In their effort to steal the marginal market share of Stupid People, they alienated a much larger market they already had. They threw away dollars to pick up dimes. They pushed the bottom end of their market to Apple. Apple is already doing “Strip out the things stupid people can’t figure out to make it appear ‘easy’ by being useless” much better than Microsoft is. Linux has evolved by leaps and bounds. Linux Mint is light-years easier to install and “just use” than any Microsoft product. Linux Gets shit done faster, with fewer resources, and next to zero headaches. Linux has achieved both the Ease of Use and the It Never Breaks goals that neither Apple nor Microsoft has accomplished. Linux has become 1, 2 and 3. If you wanna be a hardcore nerd, run a powerful, efficient server, etc, get Gentoo or Arch. If you want to get shit done with a minimum of headaches and tech support, Ubuntu, Mint, or a dozen other similar spin-off Distributions. If you want to turn your computer into an appliance with few features, but easy to use: Buy a Mac. Macs are for the Democrat Mind. No choices, everything brutally controlled, you have no say in it.
Microsoft has lost it’s mind. It has failed to improve the Driver and Networking experience. In fact, with networking, it has made things much worse since XP. A brutal headache. It’s bad for the individual, it’s REALLY bad for business. Mac goes to the extreme in dumbing things down, but it’s the only consumer option available, so the lower end of Microsoft’s former customer base is flocking to it. Because Linux costs nothing, and is now superior in every way, it is slowly being adopted across all tiers in this bad economy. No one can afford to waste their money on empty promises anymore. Mac users are satisfied because they don’t know any better. This was Steve’s genius. He knew that there were only two unlimited resources on this Planet. Sunlight, and Stupidity. You can’t sell sunlight, so there was only one other option.
As Microsoft no longer offers a product suitable for Nerds or Businesses, Linux is taking away their market share. People only use it because they are afraid to learn. Business only uses it because they have other software that requires the Microsoft environment to unction. They painted themselves into a corner, and only use Microsoft’s products grudgingly. They are desperate to get out from under the profit-crushing TCO of Microsoft’s newest “technologies.” This has driven Web Apps. Which allows for any old OS to do the job with the easy of a Web Browser. Businesses have found a platform-independent way to escape the TCO of Microsoft products. This was why Microsoft pushed so hard for web-presence and IE’s deliberate incompatibilities and prevalence. “It only works with Microsoft, so you have to buy our stuff or you’re screwed.” But that didn’t work. Not because anybody was smart, but because they just cannot afford to pay the Microsoft Tax anymore. Hardware, Infrastructure, Maintenance; these cost next to nothing in IT when compared to paying the Microsoft Software Licensing Fees. And for what? Software that barely works and keeps slowing down Employee Productivity? How many hours of pay to a building full of employees while “The computers are down” or “Staring at the Hourglass” or “The drivers don’t work?” That is the true cost of Microsoft’s failures, and it is immeasurable.
Linux is now the best choice for anyone who:
1) Cannot afford the high price of being stupid (MacOS), and are willing to start applying themselves.
2) Are not so afraid of change that they refuse to try something new.
3) Are businesses which combine the interests of 1 and 2 (cannot afford the Microsoft Tax, can pay a fraction of that price to have Employees re-write software).
Microsoft owned the number 2 spot. But, their products encouraged people to get dumber. They created too many crutches that got in the way of actually learning how the Computer works, and this stifles productivity and makes using the computer a painful experience. You can’t get a straight answer to a question, because there isn’t one anymore. The crutches have muddied the water so badly, you can’t learn. The terminology falsified in an effort to dumb it down. I think you’re smarter than that.
There are a myriad of other reasons, but this is the root driving force that nobody talks about. Microsoft has failed to realize that Dimes are not worth as much as Dollars. They are trying to emulate Apple in something that Apple is much better at doing. They neglected the top of the market that simply cannot function with garbage products. Microsoft is the reason for Linux, and it’s not as hard and scary as Microsoft wants you to think it is. Fear, it’s the only thing keeping you stuck where you are. Microsoft doesn’t want you to figure out how much easier and more pleasant using a computer is without them. You’re being treated like a mushroom, stop falling for it!
Why pay Microsoft to give you headaches, when you can save your money and your sanity at the same time? Microsoft made themselves irrelevant. Scare tactics and holding 3rd-tier business software hostage is all they’ve got left. They have become adversarial in their own customers. It’s like the IRS. We only pay them because of what they threaten to do to us if we don’t…
