Home > Editorials > Microsoft and The Mob Mentality

LAST EDITED: Monday, May 22, 2000

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his has driven me insane long enough, it is now time to let all the steam out. I am getting tired of virtually every Windows developer complaining about how much he/she hates Microsoft. If they are so fed up with Microsoft products, STOP USING THEM! The choice is in their hands (and maybe some of yours too). What software you use is your choice, and do not tell yourself otherwise. No one is forcing you to use Windows, and any other Microsoft product. There are many other applications, and operating systems out there, and you have the final authority.

I too have an option, and I choose to use Microsoft products for tasks that require them. I am an UNIX / Windows developer and I do not hate Microsoft. I believe Microsoft is a great company. The sudden technological changes in the late 21st century have been contributed greatly in part by Microsoft, and do not tell me otherwise. Virtually every household in the US and around the world has a computer, as well as Internet access. If it wasn't for Microsoft taking charge, many of you (except the really geeky few who lock themselves in their rooms 24/7 <me!!>) would not have had the jobs that you have today. Most of you reading this article are likely to be developers, so what do you think your profession would be if the economy was not focused on technology?

It is now time to address the inevitable, no flame e-mails please! The previous paragraphs does not in any way attribute the development of the technological frenzy around the world entirely to Microsoft. However, it merely states that Microsoft played a major role in it.

Choosing a product to work with depends on your task. There are many different tasks which Microsoft products will be perfect for, and many which they will not be. It is your job to pick a product to use that best fits your needs. So please, all of you Windows developers stop complaining. I am getting very tired of all of this nonsense. If you hate Windows so much, then stop using it, and try another operating system. Don't think that Microsoft Windows is your ONLY option.

Over the last few weeks (years really), I have seen comments posted all over the net complaining about Microsoft. For example, a recent poll on codeguru.com, a web site which mostly focuses on Windows developing in Visual C++, Visual Basic, and other Microsoft products, asked "Is Microsoft being faithful to its beta program and in its prerelease press announcements?" The question is not what bothers me. It is one of the choices and the ignorance of the people choosing it. "Don't care. I've given up on believing anything that MS promises" voted by 1145 people, or 43.6% of the people. Those people are completely ignoring the simple basic truth, most of them are Windows developers themselves. I cannot say this without being redundant, but, are the near 50 percent of the people who picked that choice ignorant enough to deny that their entire lives are base on an opinion that completely goes against what they do.  Did anyone force them to use Microsoft products?  I think not (except in rare cases).

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Most of these people who hate Microsoft do it to be "cool". Same thing with the people who choose the Netscape Internet Browser over Internet Explorer. They choose it because and I quote, "Microsoft Sucks". Clearly I.E. 5.x handles new web technologies better than Netscape Communicator 4 (on the Windows platform at least). But a chosen few, who mostly use Windows themselves, won't even dare use I.E. because they don't like Microsoft. What is going through their minds? If you can explain this to me then I will praise you, because through all my thinking I have yet to understand their ways of thought. Or am I so lost that I am beyond hope of understanding the complexity of their brains? E-mail me (alex@acky.net)

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