4 ms·

If there’s one organization that should have known how difficult it is to make software work right, it’s Microsoft. It is disturbing that Microsoft either coul

If there’s one organization that should have known how difficult it is to make software work right, it’s Microsoft. It is disturbing that Microsoft either couldn’t see any of this coming, or just didn’t care what would happen when a significant number of people have their lives turned upside down. It is even worse when you consider how many billions of dollars they continue to make by selling software. If you can take all that money, you should be willing to spend some of that money to make experiences that are actually worth all that money. And this wasn’t even that hard to predict. It’s clear that caution is advisable in any updating system simply because there are too many possible combinations of hardware and user apps: there are too many things that can go wrong. You need to assume that a particular user’s combination might not be something you anticipated so the user should be in control of whether and when to update. And yet, they didn’t keep users in control; they didn’t update things carefully on a side copy; and Windows 10 even had the audacity to outright delete things that it deemed unnecessary. On top of it all, instead of taking baby steps, they changed just about every damned thing that was possible to change in Windows! And if even that wasn’t enough, they basically lied to the user using language like how it would always be possible to go back, everything would be preserved, etc.

Arizhel 10y ago
> It is disturbing that Microsoft either couldn’t see any of this coming, or just didn’t care what would happen when a significant number of people have their lives turned upside down. >It is even worse when you consider how many billions of dollars they continue to make by selling software. If you can take all that money, you should be willing to spend some of that money to make experiences that are actually worth all that money. Why should they care? As you point out, they continue to make billions of dollars selling software. Why should they spend one red cent to improve the user experience? Is it going to improve their profits? No, of course not. So it's wrong for them to worry about any problems their users might have. These users are perfectly willing to throw money at MS no matter what, and aren't going to leave MS no matter what, so MS is right to just take their money and do the bare minimum. >And if even that wasn’t enough, they basically lied to the user using language like how it would always be possible to go back, everything would be preserved, etc. Yep, and despite all this stuff, the users keep coming back for more. It's just like whining about an abusive boyfriend: "why won't he treat me better? Waa!"
- Arizhel 10y ago
  It's funny how I get down-modded for these comments, but no one ever has any actually productive things to say or counter with. All people want to do is whine and complain about MS's policies and actions lately, but suggest something productive and all they do is come up with excuses for why it can't ever work, and point out how these actions are perfectly sensible from MS's point of view (and their interest in making profit) and people get mad, as if somehow MS has some kind of responsibility to make them happy and act the way they think MS should. It's seriously dysfunctional behavior, at a societal level.

Arizhel 10y ago

> It is disturbing that Microsoft either couldn’t see any of this coming, or just didn’t care what would happen when a significant number of people have their lives turned upside down. >It is even worse when you consider how many billions of dollars they continue to make by selling software. If you can take all that money, you should be willing to spend some of that money to make experiences that are actually worth all that money. Why should they care? As you point out, they continue to make billions of dollars selling software. Why should they spend one red cent to improve the user experience? Is it going to improve their profits? No, of course not. So it's wrong for them to worry about any problems their users might have. These users are perfectly willing to throw money at MS no matter what, and aren't going to leave MS no matter what, so MS is right to just take their money and do the bare minimum. >And if even that wasn’t enough, they basically lied to the user using language like how it would always be possible to go back, everything would be preserved, etc. Yep, and despite all this stuff, the users keep coming back for more. It's just like whining about an abusive boyfriend: "why won't he treat me better? Waa!"

Arizhel 10y ago
It's funny how I get down-modded for these comments, but no one ever has any actually productive things to say or counter with. All people want to do is whine and complain about MS's policies and actions lately, but suggest something productive and all they do is come up with excuses for why it can't ever work, and point out how these actions are perfectly sensible from MS's point of view (and their interest in making profit) and people get mad, as if somehow MS has some kind of responsibility to make them happy and act the way they think MS should. It's seriously dysfunctional behavior, at a societal level.