Anti-Microsoft-ism

[Sudenak]

Mostly a slew of shady business tactics, typically involving patenting ideas and then using the patents to sue other people with, buying smaller companies to defeat competition, and slapping together the Xbox with second-hand crap parts in hopes no one would notice.

There's a bunch of other stuff, but that's what came to mind off the top of my head. They're your typical evil monopoly, gaining extra scorn simply for being so massive and prevalent. Baffles me that Sony doesn't get as much hate as them, though.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Hating Microsoft is so 2001.

Seriosuly though, they've made a whole lot of mistakes, willingly/unwillingly and bening/malign in the past (and most likely in the future aswell) and that will forever cloud their reputation.
However I don't think a whole lot of companies in that class have a clean history at all.

In terms of software, Windows 7 more than enough makes up for Windows CEMENT.

Baffles me that Sony doesn't get as much hate as them, though.

They've been hacked, what, 17 times in the last half year?

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Ok, Im not a fanboy or anything, but what is it with the wave of anti-Microsoft sentiments these days. What unforgivable sin has Microsoft committed. I mean, I know we accuse it of being monopolistic, but can you imagine the state of the world if everyone used a different OS. Imagine the burden on software developers to have to program for 50 different OS's. What do we all hate Microsoft for??

"these days"? People have hated Microsoft for years.
Personally, i only hate Microsoft for 2 things: Vista and Internet Explorer. Both are absolute pieces of shit and they deserve every bit of criticism they get for those. However, on whole i don't hate Microsoft. They've made more good decisions than bad, and with the above exceptions, typically i find that a Microsoft label gives me some peace of mind.

 

[Weaver]

I love Microsoft, if only I didn't fail my interview in Seattle

 

[FalloutJack]

What??, we hate Microsoft, because of its founder, who, BTW, has been retired for ages. Thats a bit unfair

Yeah, people hate on MS because Bill Gates had a monopoly, and he did what he needed to do to keep it afloat. Is that really so bad?

I wonder...


Yeah, he's evil. He owns The Evil Empire. (No, not Walmart! The OTHER Evil Empire!)

 

[Dense_Electric]

I think it's mostly that people have to have something to ***** about. Sure, there are undoubtedly people out there who just don't care for their products, but that's no reason to hate the company.

Frankly my Zune has lasted me nearly two years with no problems whatsoever, Vista's lasted me longer than that with the only problems being minor ones not related to the OS itself, and my four-year-old 360 has only RRoD'd once, and was fixed and returned within a week for free. Maybe I'm just the Jesus of electronics, but I've have had very good experiences with nearly all my Microsoft products.

The only one I don't care for is Internet Explorer, but hey, that's what Firefox is for.

 

[MetalDooley]

They also named their console the X-box.

Other than that I have no problems with them.

And that's a problem why exactly?It's no worse than any other console name

 

[ElNeroDiablo]

Windows Vista was crap and I'm on my 6th X-box 360.

They also named their console the X-box.

Other than that I have no problems with them.

Considering it came from DirectX which covers DirectDraw, DirectSound, Direct3D... Basically it's a whole bunch of M$-specifically made Sound/Video API's made to compete against Open Source opponents such as OpenGL and M$ generally does what amounts to corporate blackmail to keep all Desktop gaming (aka: Windows Gaming) locked into DX with kickbacks and threats of no future kickbacks if a gaming company doesn't use M$'s code in the game (even if the game servers such as Blizzard's WoW servers run fucking LINUX)...

Wait a fucking minute! That sounds awful like the under-table antics of M$ when dealing with DELL & HP to try and prevent the OEM's from installing Linux on the systems instead of Windows, by threatening to stop selling them the OEM licenses at such low prices (a fifth to even a tenth of the Off-The-Shelf price for the "complete" version which you pay out the nose for a different CD key to unlock stuff hidden on EVERY FUCKING DISC PRESSED).

Is it any WONDER the geek/techie community hates Microsoft's guts, and the marketing weasel that is Bill Gates (Paul Allen was the TRUE tech behind Microsoft, Gates was the marketing head).

 

[Sticky Squid]

I don't like them paying for timed exclusives, that and RROD are my only problems with them.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Come on people Vista wasn't as bad as you guys say (after 1 year of patching), it doesn't even come close to 95, 98 (none-SE), ME, and CE, sure it had its issues with WiFi and general connections to other computers but it didn't die constantly nor did it have massive compatibility issues.

 

[Pendragon9]

I never hated them, but now I do because of their new "forced ads" which will prevent you from playing your games until you watch a 60 second ad at startup.

I'm dead serious about this. Google "in-game ads Microsoft" and you'll see it's a new feature coming up.

I don't care if it's just business. That's sickening. AND the fact that they're raising XBL costs just makes them greedy.

 

[JezebelinHell]

Because they make up stupid standards that they then don't even follow themselves. Webdesigners, unite!

They already have.
Microsoft does not set web standards. They wanted to as they have with everything else but they got pushed aside and have not been able to keep up with the standards that are being set by:
http://www.webstandards.org/
http://www.w3.org/standards/

Yea, those are run by people working in the field. They even put out pages to test browsers against for compatibility for their standards. Microsoft never does well. They cannot be leader of the pack when they are not making the rules.

I think it's mostly that people have to have something to ***** about. Sure, there are undoubtedly people out there who just don't care for their products, but that's no reason to hate the company.

Not liking a companies products and business practices is exactly the reason to hate a company. Maybe it is because some of us have worked closer to and had to see more of their bullshit than an average user. Maybe working in tech support for the past 15 years has allowed me to witness things you haven't been around for or paid much attention to. I am sure there are things you dislike that I have little knowledge of but I am not going to discount your hatred of it.

OT:
Simple answer: Microsoft has used their money to push out any possible competition, especially in the OS area. Competition is what gives us better products, not to mention the ability to make a CHOICE.

edit, that was too many.

 

[coolkirb]

This website has a hatred for all consoles, in order I would say they hate nintendo the most, then microsoft, then since the network crashed they started hitting on soney. Handheld games dont count as games here and the PC is an omnipotent god. Thats basically how I have come to understand this website.

 

[Cleariously]

Part of it is the paying for Xbox live, which I'm fine with. I mean, I don't cause if I want to play online I'll play on the pc. What is annoying is the fact that you need gold membership to play demos. And I want my Sonic Generations demo. Now.

 

[linkvegeta]

I do not like microsoft because they havent put out a good OS in a good while.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Oh MS got hate from the moment they went big wig corporate, and in the business world it's jungle law, to be the top dog you need to crack skulls and steal shit, you can imagine that doesn't get you the best rep.

If you really want to know all the dirty laundry look up some sites, I don't think we need a full flamewar on our hands here

 

[BoredDragon]

I don't hate Microsoft, I just hate the PR department of their gaming division for being morons.

 

[ScourgeOfHell]

Ok, so the monopoly card seems to keep coming into this discussion, but like I said, Is their monopoly really such a bad thing??