3 ms·

What a dumb feature. They had to get all that backlash to understand why everyone wouldn't want it. Is someone at Microsoft taking crazy pills to think consumer

What a dumb feature. They had to get all that backlash to understand why everyone wouldn't want it. Is someone at Microsoft taking crazy pills to think consumers would be into that? They pulled the exact same shit 11 years ago when they launched the Xbox One as a "home media center" instead of a gaming console and it came with mandatory always-on internet connection, disc games DRM tied to a single console unable to lend them to a friend, and with Kinect camera, and just like this time, it took community backlash to get them to roll back on this shit while Sony was having the time of their lives seeing how the succes of the PS4 was already in the bag from the start before they evens started. What is wrong with them? Does Microsoft think consumers are stupid masochists who enjoy being shit on by megacorporations while paying for the privilege? Does Nadella not look into the stupid decisions his execs are making and make necessary organizational adjustments to prevent stuff like this? People shit on Steve Balmer but I don't remember Microsoft's products having that level of anti-consumer disrespect during his tenure. Sure Microsoft Zune and Window Phone 7-10 eventually flopped, by not because they had anti-consumer features but because they were too late and not very popular. And the Xbox 360, despite the Red ring of death was still smash hit. Now, Microsoft is an even richer company that during Balmer's tenure but it's products seem way more anti-consumer. Edit: sorry for the overuse of the word shit, I'm just angry

isoprophlex 2y ago
They keep confusing regular old customers with the stupid masochist enterprise customers they also sell to, forgetting that the experience of spending your own money on a poop sandwich is something entirely else than spending your bosses' money on one.
yakz 2y ago
Adobe just forced through a EULA update (for creative software tools) that was at least somewhat widely interpreted as practically granting Adobe ownership of the work product of their users and their stock is (/checks notes) up 14% today.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  Wallstreet rewards rent seeking.
digging 2y ago
It's not as stupid as you're making it out to be. For almost all tech companies - hell, almost all companies in the modern world - customer abuse is a first-class strategy. Some push it further than others, some are more blatant than others. It's probably not about them being insanely out-of-touch with what people want, but about them miscalculating what people will tolerate. Microsoft seems to be willing to push things a little further because, why wouldn't they? They got people to install Vista, then 7, then 10, then 11, all increasingly abusive.
- zubspace 2y ago
  Yeah, and if you do that long enough, eventually there will be generation of consumers which think that it is totally normal. I remember a time, when I set specific firewall rules for each application. A time where I would never allow to share my location. A time where I would never link my google account to other services. But as I grew older I stopped caring because I have other stuff to do. The problem is, that those companies have time on their side. They can do whatever they want, back out, constantly rebrand stuff and confuse their users until we eventually give up. And at some point a large part of the population stops caring, because it's a fight, which is very hard to win. I hate it, but I have not the strength, time and will to push back.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  How was Windows 7 abusive?
staunton 2y ago
> Does Microsoft think consumers are stupid masochists Microsoft thinks their product has no agency (and they are mostly right, just not always)
resource_waste 2y ago
Lets be honest, if Apple did it, it would be hailed revolutionary. Different customer base.
- alt227 2y ago
  To enforce your point, rewind.ai has been doing it on mac for a while now and I havent seen anything but good reports about it. https://www.rewind.ai/ https://www.rewind.ai/
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    I'm not sure how I feel about a product whose page still says ©2023
    - slater 2y ago
      A.I. is notoriously bad at math
  - acdha 2y ago
    That’s the difference consent makes: I’ve heard criticism of that product but it was always “I will never use this” rather than “my root of trust is untrustworthy”.
jahewson 2y ago
To answer your question about the Xbox One, I visited Microsoft Research during the development of the 2nd Kinect and the researchers were excited about all the technology they were going to pack into it and the great success that it would be - compared with their usual business of making prototypes that never see the light of day or are quickly killed off. It’s well known that Microsoft is a very divisional company with internal frictions, and I think what we saw with the Xbox One is that anyone who convincingly could shove their technology into the product lobbied hard for that. Perhaps because they knew the alternative for them was irrelevance.
ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
Minus the mandatory always-on internet and DRM, that sounds 10 years ahead of its time. During covid I was really hoping that Microsoft would launch videoconferencing through Kinect (which was sitting unused in a closet in my home). Looking back the XBone wanted to become what my Apple TV has ended up becoming. Agree 100% on the awful delivery of the whole thing though

isoprophlex 2y ago

They keep confusing regular old customers with the stupid masochist enterprise customers they also sell to, forgetting that the experience of spending your own money on a poop sandwich is something entirely else than spending your bosses' money on one.

yakz 2y ago

Adobe just forced through a EULA update (for creative software tools) that was at least somewhat widely interpreted as practically granting Adobe ownership of the work product of their users and their stock is (/checks notes) up 14% today.

Rinzler89 2y ago
Wallstreet rewards rent seeking.

digging 2y ago

It's not as stupid as you're making it out to be. For almost all tech companies - hell, almost all companies in the modern world - customer abuse is a first-class strategy. Some push it further than others, some are more blatant than others. It's probably not about them being insanely out-of-touch with what people want, but about them miscalculating what people will tolerate. Microsoft seems to be willing to push things a little further because, why wouldn't they? They got people to install Vista, then 7, then 10, then 11, all increasingly abusive.

zubspace 2y ago
Yeah, and if you do that long enough, eventually there will be generation of consumers which think that it is totally normal. I remember a time, when I set specific firewall rules for each application. A time where I would never allow to share my location. A time where I would never link my google account to other services. But as I grew older I stopped caring because I have other stuff to do. The problem is, that those companies have time on their side. They can do whatever they want, back out, constantly rebrand stuff and confuse their users until we eventually give up. And at some point a large part of the population stops caring, because it's a fight, which is very hard to win. I hate it, but I have not the strength, time and will to push back.
Rinzler89 2y ago
How was Windows 7 abusive?

staunton 2y ago

> Does Microsoft think consumers are stupid masochists Microsoft thinks their product has no agency (and they are mostly right, just not always)

resource_waste 2y ago

Lets be honest, if Apple did it, it would be hailed revolutionary. Different customer base.

alt227 2y ago
To enforce your point, rewind.ai has been doing it on mac for a while now and I havent seen anything but good reports about it. https://www.rewind.ai/ https://www.rewind.ai/
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  I'm not sure how I feel about a product whose page still says ©2023
  - slater 2y ago
    A.I. is notoriously bad at math
- acdha 2y ago
  That’s the difference consent makes: I’ve heard criticism of that product but it was always “I will never use this” rather than “my root of trust is untrustworthy”.

jahewson 2y ago

To answer your question about the Xbox One, I visited Microsoft Research during the development of the 2nd Kinect and the researchers were excited about all the technology they were going to pack into it and the great success that it would be - compared with their usual business of making prototypes that never see the light of day or are quickly killed off. It’s well known that Microsoft is a very divisional company with internal frictions, and I think what we saw with the Xbox One is that anyone who convincingly could shove their technology into the product lobbied hard for that. Perhaps because they knew the alternative for them was irrelevance.

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago

Minus the mandatory always-on internet and DRM, that sounds 10 years ahead of its time. During covid I was really hoping that Microsoft would launch videoconferencing through Kinect (which was sitting unused in a closet in my home). Looking back the XBone wanted to become what my Apple TV has ended up becoming. Agree 100% on the awful delivery of the whole thing though