What's wrong with Microsoft software (and plenty of other's as well) is that it's big, buggy and tries to lock the user into an endless cycle of upgrades.
Everyone has Microsoft software (apps, not OS) because it is pretty near impossible to buy a PC today that dosen't already have it installed. Corel was outselling Microsoft at retail with their WordPerfect Office compared to MS Office. But then, who ever buys MS Office retail when it comes on your machine. Most people do not pick their word processor, spreadsheet, etc., they use what the get. As long as MS Office (or Works) does not trash people's work, they will use it. Why go out and buy "better" (I'm not passing judgment, I use MS Office) software, go through the trouble of installing it and remove (if you can figure out how) the apps that came with your machine if you can get a passable job done with what came for free.
I do go to the trouble of removing Internet Explorer from my systems because I prefer Netscape. It is, however, extremely annoying to find a shortcut to the IE setup program appear on my desktop everytime I install or upgrade a different MS application.
I would love to see MS broken up as AT&T was. The Baby-Bills would have to adapt to life without the comfort of the monolithic, bundled distribution mechanism that they now enjoy. We would probably see better products from them, more diverse and better competing products, and even some real winners (not that MS is a slouch) on Wall Street (like Lucent). I can mix and match my telecommunications services now to get what works best for me. Why is it so hard to do that on my PC?
-Michael |
