Microsoft's Big Advantage

[Shyam Bharath]

Microsoft has one big advantage to its side. The Windows Operating System.

 

When windows was released, Netscape Navigator was world's most widely used web browser. But then MS started shipping IE along with Windows. This got the number of Netscape users down.

 

Now, IE7 has got a search facility that defaults to MSN Search. Could this be an attempt to overtake Google? :embarass:

 

slashdot.org/articles/06/05/01/1549234.shtml

[TheBigDog]

Even before it is released there will be a utility for changing the default search engine to anything. This is regardless of what the court settlement is. Microsoft gets what they want and the public gets what it wants.

 

Bill

[alexander]

Microsoft has one big advantage to its side. The Windows Operating System.

Windows

/forums/images/smilies/devilsign.gif

and Advantage? that sounds like an oxymoron... And it is laughable if you call any

M$

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product an advantage, yes people use

Windows[evil], and yes it comes with IE as a default browser, that however did not stop firefox from getting over 100 000 000 downloads of their browser last year, and when [evil]Vista

/forums/images/smilies/devilsign.gif

airs, people using FF will continue using it, because it still beats IE in anything you can think of... Google and

M$

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have been fighting for a couple of years for search domination, and Google is still winning by mountains, probably because their servers don't run

windows

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;)... well that and the fact that Google has some of the most tallented programmers and developers of today, some of the brightest minds research for google making still more and more amazing products every day...

[Shyam Bharath]

More robust products i see:

 

PHP Apps are more customizable that ASP or ASP.NET

 

Firefox looks much better than IE

 

Linux is used by NASA (in their Columbia Super Comp) and Google.

 

But by large, people who are new to computers go to windows because it is the easy ( and of course powerless ) thing. :evil:

[alexander]

What's even better then PHP... Ruby with dynamically generated AJAX.

 

Firefox is a web browser, IE is a web briwsing program thingy.

 

Linux is used by the NSA, FBI, CIA, NASA, Pixar studios, Google, Yahoo, even M$ uses it as a shield when another big virus is about to attack...

 

And window$ is arguably an easy thing. For example, for me Window$ was the hardest OS to learn, because it just does not make any sense...

[VS Prasad]

Mr. Bhrath,

 

The usage of Netscape has gone down not because of IE7.

More than 60% of IE7 users are reporting problems.

 

There are several problems being faced by users of IE7

related to tabbed browsing:

 

The option "open in new tab" is missing from the context

(right click) menu;

The tab band is missing completely;

Sometimes third party toolbars may not appear, or seem

to appear and disappear at will; Sometimes links will

open in new windows, even when all options are set to

tabs only.

 

"Open in New Tab" context menu item is missing - Example: Google toolbar

http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2006/10/24/203178.aspx

IEBlog : IE7 Tabbed Browsing Implementation

 

I found that Firefox and Maxthon are better.

 

Google is no longer the best search engine.

Try AllTheInternet.com

It claims to be better than Google and MS.

[Boerseun]

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with Microsoft. Problem is, however, that Microsoft isn't very focussed when developing software, they want to be everything to everybody. Which makes the software end up in having features catering for such a vast market segment, trying to keep everybody happy, whilst the average user might actually use 10% (if that) of the available features. All the user knows is that the software is bloated beyond reasonableness, and he only uses 10% of it.

 

The same thing will happen to Linux, where distros are designed around an ever bigger market segment. In the old days, Linux worked fine when it was largely used and operated by computer techies. If they want to crack into the general user market, they will also have to include useless shiny features and dumb it down by an order of magnitude to make John Smith trade in his Windows box for Linux. This will also inflate the installations and installed features, in order to capture the biggest possible market segment. It's not inconceivable that a couple o'years down the line, as new distros follow this trend, people will say "Damn, I'd love to install Linux, but it takes up so much resources!" Making the distinction between Windows supporters and Linux supporters moot, if resource usage is the only criteria.

 

Same with search engines. People go ballistic in their support for Google, whilst it has never surpassed Yahoo! till this day. Yahoo! might be said to be trying too hard, and they have also fell in to the Microsoft business model of trying to be everything to everybody. If everybody starts supporting some purported 'underdog' like Firefox over IE or Netscape, they will soon see that the quality of the software will continuously degrade as the Firefox attempts at gaining an ever-growing market. Call this the "The Law of the Cow".

 

The Law of the Cow:

The quality of any product or service is inversely related to the size of the company.

 

Anybody rabidly supporting Firefox, Linux, etc., will soon find the results of their efforts in supporting it to be degrading the product as the manufacturers/programmers keep on adding crap to enlarge its market footprint to as big as possible, resulting in their software to be nothing else than unfocussed dimly-written non-specialised resource hogs.

 

Like I said, there's nothing inherently wrong with Microsoft. The crap software they put out as OS's is simply the result of them being the first software company to successfully apply this specific marketing strategy by trying to be everything to everybody.

[Tormod]

People go ballistic in their support for Google, whilst it has never surpassed Yahoo! till this day.

 

The Law of the Cow:

The quality of any product or service is inversely related to the size of the company.

 

Just out of curiosity (and slightly off-topic): Do you know how many people work at Google?

[Buffy]

Just out of curiosity (and slightly off-topic): Do you know how many people work at Google?

About 10,000 (jeez, Google "google employees"!).

 

I'd say the Law of the Cow applies there too! :hihi:

 

Bigger is just bigger,

Buffy

[Tormod]

About 10,000 (jeez, Google "google employees"!).

 

I'd say the Law of the Cow applies there too! :hihi:

 

Sure does. But it's closer to 11,000. I was shocked when I learned that. 4,500 engineers engineering...what? :)

[Buffy]

Sure does. But it's closer to 11,000. I was shocked when I learned that. 4,500 engineers engineering...what? :hihi:

Like I like to say: But you can't get 60 guys to dig one post hole in one second....

 

Diminishing marginal returns,

Buffy

[Boerseun]

Look up the number of people working for Microsoft internationally, and you'll see the Law of the Cow in action! :hihi:

[Chacmool]

I think it's confession time. I'll understand if I get shunned from the community and if I'm forever ridiculed. I'm putting on my dunce cap as I'm typing this.

 

1. I love Windows. I love using all their nice shiny buttons.

 

2. I use Internet Explorer. Everyone tells me that Mozilla is better, but I find IE easy to use.

 

3. I never use Google. I always use Yahoo.

 

Everyone needs a village idiot, I suppose.

[freeztar]

I don't think you should feel ashamed Chac. The software is a good fit for you and you like how it works. What's wrong with that?

People bash windows so much and I often wonder why they don't just move on. If you like linux better, then use linux. :hihi:

 

The right tool, for the right job...

[Buffy]

I don't think you should feel ashamed Chac. The software is a good fit for you and you like how it works. What's wrong with that?

I agree completely. I use windows and I curse it, but I have no choice because I build software for the "real world" where there are lots of people like Chac...which makes me apostate to some, but they don't make as much money as I do! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! :)

 

Windows does many things well. It should just do them better, and if you don't complain enough they won't get better, especially when they think they have such a "Big Advantage" that they don't have to.

 

The people get the government they deserve, :hihi:

Buffy

[Tormod]

Everyone needs a village idiot, I suppose.

 

*Puts a cloth over his Windows desktop with tons of IE7 windows*

 

"Only my wife uses IE7",

T

[Jay-qu]

I know what you mean, they have the distinct advantage of having millions of computer-illiterate people worldwide. So if they want them to use something they can make it default, tell them its good, and then theyll use it - end of story.