Poll: Do you like Microsoft?

[Matthew Jabour]

Good old Microsoft. The only one of the Big 3 to come from America, they've been in some hot water lately, what with the rumors of a DRM-only console. On the other hand, they have contributed much to the world of gaming, what with their evolution of combat and whatnot. So, all in all, do you like them? Do the positives outweigh the negatives? Do you consider their participation in the console wars a good move? Please justify your answer in the comments.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

At the moment, not particularly.

The Xbox 360's hardware is shoddy.

They've been pushing things on their customers that they don't want, like kinect, facebook integration, bing, and all this useless crap is what they're concerned with over having exclusive games.

There are only 2 real triple A exclusives that Microsoft has now it seems, Halo and Gears of War, and out of the two the only one I actually like is Halo.

The only really good thing about the Xbox 360 is its controller.

By the way, this is all being said by someone who has owned two xbox 360 consoles, and is an admitted Halo fanboy who genuinely loved Halo 4. The direction Microsoft has been going in for the last few years has been utter rubbish and I'm not hopeful about the next xbox console.

And this isn't even to mention their completely godawful "Games for Windows Live."

 

[piinyouri]

I still don't think I would call it hate, but I certainly avoid dealing with them/their products whenever possible.

 

[BeerTent]

I like Microsoft. I like Windows because it's easy and lays out all of the controls for me. Win8 is fast, and easy to adapt to. The new Visual Studio's pretty sweet to work with, and MSO does what's needed. However, I really feel the entertainment sector is not for them. Sure, they've lucked out, but that's what they did. They just lucked out with Halo:CE and they continue with the console market. Sure, some games they roll out are pretty sweet, but they continue to fail to grasp what gamers want most of the time

Also, they've pushed Skype downhill, showing that all these years with MSNM was nothing short of missed knowledge.

We just need them to kill off XP completely, and we're square. Fuck I hate that beast of an OS now. It's like that dead person you keep burying in the back yard and every night he claws his way out from it's shallow grave until you whack it with the shovel and bury it again. Every goddamn night, XP. Every goddamn night.

 

[Edguy]

Where is the "Meh.." option?

 

[Keoul]

Where is the "Meh.." option?

I concur, there needs to be a "meh" option.
I have no strong feelings one way or another, gaming wise I avoid their xbox, never had the incentive to buy one so no real judgement on something I never owned, PC wise it's okay but still pretty damn pricey, I mean didja year about them adding a subscription fee onto Microsoft office? craaazy.

They're okay, not too really shitty not too great.

 

[morrie man]

Well really I cant follow up with anything that Dirty Hipster hasn't said already. However even though yes in retrospect of Xbox 360's hardware has left something to be desired the advancements in the technology such as Kinect has brought about interesting and new developments in gaming. Even if they didn't work out quiet.......or at all like they should have it was still an advance on technology which I could appreciate. I would agree that adding Facebook, Bing and god forsaken "Games for Windows Live" were a bit useless at times but overall I cant fault them as a whole.

I enjoy using the xbox, have ever since the first generation, and yes for the last year or so were they are heading hasn't exactly been clear but its not all bad.

Of course as I am typing this I can see now that the next Xbox is going to disappoint many and ill probably be agreeing how bad it is, after I actually play it or buy one, I hope it doesn't disappoint though.

 

[EHKOS]

Nope, I hate Microsoft. I'll take a bullet from Sony and spend the weekend in the Colorado mountains with Nintendo but Microsoft can suck a railroad spike. They have terrible business practices and they represent the ignorant crowd. Not saying everyone who likes Xbox is ignorant, but I've met so many uppity douches that want to slam Halo in my face, it's influenced my turn against them. Plus you have to pay for online features, where neither Nintendo or Sony charge for them.

 

[Able Seacat]

Do you like making multiple threads which could easily have been put together?

I would also like a 'meh' option. I like things that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have done and I dislike things they have done too.

 

[likalaruku]

I have no particular reason to dislike them.

 

[Ziame]

Yes, I do like Microsoft, even if I don't agree with some of their business practices.

They created an operating system that to me is superior to every other I've tried out there (Debian, Ubuntu, OSX), with Windows 7 being the best of the bunch (Vista 64 being a close second - the latest version of course, not that pos they released at first!).

They partake in DreamSpark programme, which provided me with, free of charge on my part, such software as:
- Windows 7 64-bit Professional
- Visual Studio Premium
- MS SQL Server
- MS SQL Server Management Studio.
(not to mention MSDN documentation which is just great)

They catch a lot of flak, but if I am to be honest, I don't really have any problems with them nor with their software. Everything I got from them works fine and is superior to competition's products (for example their Office is so much better than that OpenOffice pos I am forced to use now).

I am not swayed in any way by XBOX/360/720, because I do not use such hardware, although if the rumours were true, and in fact there was to be the so called 'feature', always-online, it would make me think less of them as a company.

Of course, there is also the 'bad' side, such as Games for Windows Live(had to use it only once though), or forcing XBox360 controller(on PCs, I mean) and DirectX down our guts(as in, actively discouraging from supporting the OpenGL), but, oh well. Everything has its ups and downs, and for _me_, good outweighs the bad.

inb4 M$drone

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I usually think these kind of debates between consoles are pointless but lately, after thinking about it, there is not a single reason to buy an xbox over a ps3. They're the same price, ps3 let's you play online for free, it doesn't push adds to your home screen, should you choose ps+ get free games, they have a huge library of ps1 and ps2 games, it plays blue blue rays, etc.

Can someone give me a reason to get an xbox (other than exclusives)? I'm dangerously close to becoming a Sony fanboy

 

[Xan Krieger]

I would say yes, I love windows XP though I will be getting windows 7 this year, my xbox 360 runs great, my original xboxes all work great, so I have no complaints.

 

[DRTJR]

Since the 720 rumors are still that rumors. I have to run off of what is current and I am fine with the present.

 

[josemlopes]

They are a corporate doing corporate things, you cant expect them to care for anything other then money. The same goes with Sony.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

For the most part my experience with MS's products has been a positive one:

Windows XP, 7 and 8 are great operating systems.
MS Office is worth the money, especially given the standard of the open source alternatives.
The wired 360 pad is without a doubt the best gaming accessory I have for my PC. (Except for my mouse of course)

My only negatives have been:
Vista
My MS Comfort Curve Keyboard spazzed out and prevented me from booting my machine once.

 

[Rednog]

I liked them in general, but since Windows 7 I haven't been a fan at all. There was a period where my old PC crapped out and I had to build a new one. Since my old one was kaput I figured I could just reuse my Windows 7 key for my new PC, nope. I ended up calling them and after like an hour of getting transferred around they gave me a replacement key. Like 2 weeks later I got a SSD and decided I wanted to rearrange my setup so that my SSD was my windows boot. Tried to install windows on my SSD on the same computer, nope. Called them back, they said I had to buy a new windows key, and after arguing with the guy he suddenly tells me that after further investigation my current key was not meant for the general public (said it was something like an engineer's key) and that he would have to deactivate it.
So, yeah. Not a fan of them anymore.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

At the moment no. Although Windows 7 is pretty good, I'm not liking the recent their developments regarding video games.