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What makes us think microsoft intentionally releases substandard software

What makes us think microsoft intentionally releases sub standard software.
21st Jan 2011

Answers (11)

-1 Votes
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It's so called "Planned obsolescence" or "built-in obsolescence"
An old concept. Google it!
21st Jan 2011
0 Votes
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Because there's no business reason
to do otherwise, and their released software is rarely not sub-standard...

If it walks like a duck...
21st Jan 2011
1 Vote
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In addition to the above
Their Development Model isn't the way to produce Good Software. It's best aimed to throw things together as quickly as possible.

Col
21st Jan 2011
0 Votes
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What makes you think the rest of us think that?
Why do you think so?
22nd Jan 2011
-1 Votes
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Test
Test
23rd Jan 2011
1 Vote
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Who doesn't
All softwares are the same due to limited resources no matter how big your company size is. Besides, agile practices - today's trend - encourage this: start with a working application then keep improving it.
Updated - 2nd Feb 2011
0 Votes
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What sub standard software?
What sub standard software do you speak of?
25th Feb 2011

Replies

OH I don't know of any other than

Well Vista Springs to mind as a Failure by most of the General Public.

Personally it's all the Undocumented Features that drive me nuts particularly when someone who uses one or more of them start complaining when M$ plug that hole. wink

Col
OH Smeg 25th Feb 2011
0 Votes
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4 year old grudges
I see holding grudges. Windows 7 is great for me. If you don't like it why not try Linux or Mac?
26th Feb 2011
0 Votes
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Windows Vista
I personally didn't care for Vista (performance-wise) but I wouldn't call it a failure. Everybody seems to jump on the bandwagon and dog Microsoft. Not everything they put out is garbage or "sub-par". IE could stand to improve but otherwise I like "M$". Security Essentials is free and I haven't had an infection since I started using it. I run Server 2008 R2 as a workstation and i love it. It's powerful, lightweight, and fast. I run Firefox as my main browser but I also use IE and Chrome on occasion (standards anybody?). Believe me, it took quite a few versions of Firefox and Chrome before they were even usable so Microsoft isn't the only company "pushing out" software that doesn't meet the public's requirements. There is always Linux...
7th Mar 2011
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Old Monopoly Fears
I doubt that it's all intentional... I mean, Vista hardly turned out well for them and it's hard to believe they intentionally created a faulty OS that they'd have to run expensive ad campaigns to try and redeem.

I think this belief comes from the fact that they used to have a literal monopoly on software, so they had enough market share that they could rely on people buying their software just because everything was stacked in their favor market wise. Add this to the fact that they were largely unpopular for the same reasons and it made it easy to imagine they were chiseling you with substandard products.

The real reason though, in my opinion, is less juicy: Making software is difficult. You don't have to TRY to make software substandard, almost everything is nearly unusable in its early stages and still usually ends up rushing out with bugs for its official release.
7th Mar 2011

Replies

Well put.
KeithBa 8th Mar 2011
They do some good stuff, when they have competition, same as any other commercial set up, quality isn't free, business's consider it an optional extra. I'm not redmond's biggest fan, but you could easily substitute any major software manufacturer in the question and be valid.
Tony Hopkinson 8th Mar 2011
0 Votes
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Figuring out how to use the #^^@%$^#&&^&! stuff
In order to judge the product, one must be able to properly run the product. In too many cases, I cannot find in their own documentation how to do basic, fundamental things. I usually have to search the 'net. Pretty slick, eh? Act incompetent and allow your customers to do your work for you: debug, document, product improvement, etc. ALL FOR FREE!
One example:
In almost every software that uses forms there is a need to limit what a user can enter in a text box. But no! Both VB and C# Express have no such object for numerics. You have to search the help, and add a class to your program manually. I know, I'm a beginner, but still, what a pain in the a$$.
28th Mar 2011

Replies

How far do you go?
Numbers only.
And back space, enter / return - sign, decimal separator, thousand separators..
Is blank zero, or zero blank. Auto rounding, to what precision. Scientific notation. Hex data entry....

Just create a component of your own, use that instead of the standard textbox. You can get rid of all the stuff you don't need like multi line wordwrap, you can default to middle right, you'll leran more doing this than f;ing abot with onkeypress event handlers all the tme.

If it's too much hassle you can buy or probably download one for free. Careful though, some are badly implemented drivel, or do about eighty other things you don't need.
Tony Hopkinson 28th Mar 2011
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