   What has Microsoft® done?
  I have decided to start a new thread to express myself, because things like this disappoint me:"Come on, they made computers easily usable by the public. Look at Linux, while it is gaining more popularity everyday, it''s not as easy as Windows is to use. I think Microsoft have done great things for the computer industry, without them we might be 5-10 years behind..."To the first part, I will answer that macintosh/apple computers have always been fairly easier to use than PCs. Is Linux harder to use than windows? That depends on which distrbution you use."5-10 years behind" without microsoft? What have they invented precisely? Let see the options...- Have they invented personal computers? No, wait thats not true.- Have they invented operating systems? Damn, those existed before bill gates was born.- Have they invented graphical user intefaces? No.- Have they invented the internet? Certainly not.- Have they invented optical mice, like the intellieye explorer? Better luck next time.- Have they invented graphical internet browsers? Sorry, no.What have they invented that is so priceless? Every technology they could claim to own has been either copied or bought from another company. Recently, microsoft has started MSN messenger, started an ISP and tried to buy google. What are they trying to do? I will tell you, they are trying to own the entire (computer) world.Face it "anti-anti-microsoft" people, that company has never done anything for you apart from getting you rid of that spare cash (assuming you are consistent and since you like microsoft so much, you buy copies of the software they make for all computers you wish to use it on). There are reasons to hate microsoft, or at least to dislike their discutable business practices.   Looking for a serious game project?www.xgameproject.com
  Inventing stuff is one thing.  Getting it ready for the mass market is a whole 'nuther thing.  That is where Microsoft excels. They took an innovative but basically unusable product and got it ready for prime time.  They are business genius, not computer genius.   [edited by - CodeMunkie on February 5, 2004 5:10:26 PM];quote:Original post by Max_Payne  - Have they invented personal computers? No, wait thats not true.- Have they invented operating systems? Damn, those existed before bill gates was born.- Have they invented graphical user intefaces? No.- Have they invented the internet? Certainly not.- Have they invented optical mice, like the intellieye explorer? Better luck next time.- Have they invented graphical internet browsers? Sorry, no.No, but they took advantage of all these, just as linux does. Did the linux community invent anything of those? No.They ARE great at marketing, and if you haven''t been under a rock for the last decade, you''ve noticed that''s important. The linux marketing are based pretty much on IBM''s thoughts, and the common word of mouth. Let''s see how that evolves.Yeah, I''m a linux guy too, but I don''t miscredit microsoft, if I could be in bill gates shues, I would, but I still don''t want to pay for my everyday software.Albert ;quote:Original post by Max_Payne   [...]macintosh/apple computers have always been fairly easier to use[...]And you think that if apple was in charge and made the main OS used by everybody that they wouldn't be in the same situation MS is in now?   [edited by - extrarius on February 5, 2004 5:14:28 PM];  how about unify''ing the market for developers? do you really want to develope for an os that is used by some 20% of the computer users? what if microsoft wouldnt exist and we would have 30-40 popular os''es each taking some 2-3% of the customers? your customers? do you really want to invest 30-40 times more time or people to make the big cash?...same for dx, ok opengl was also out, but both of them caused you less work as a developer...your 5-10years are this unification or making standards/apis that have to be followed by hdmanufacturers etc.and no linux is only free because some people hates to pay for os''es and decided to make there own, if they had made linux back in the time ms got the big cash, they wouldnt think about making it free, hell do you make something free that will 100% make you rich?, and you would bash linux today...T2k ;  They invented / marketed the first user friendly software and OS on x86.Their software is STILL the easiest to use.  It isn''t always the best, but it usually isn''t the worse either. ;  There are already too much Linux / Windows / Microsoft / Whatever therads around. No need for another one.   Sander Maréchal[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]