Business 2.0 Magazine proposes to boycott Vista

It's not hate of Microsoft. It's hate of bad software. Vista's 5 years late and counting, won't have anything that was promised, won't be any more reliable, and the new "security" features are already known to be so badly designed that they will cause more harm than they prevent.

Boycotting bad software is the only rational choice, otherwise companies are encouraged to continue making bad software.

You see a lot of "Microsoft bashing" because Microsoft produces a lot of really terrible software, and nothing that any serious software engineer would respect. When Microsoft is able to make even mediocre software, software at the average quality of the rest of the industry, then you can ask people to stop "bashing" them. Until then, speaking up and saying "this is garbage" is vital.

Mark, I have a couple of questions for you:

Do you think that 90% of the PC users are brain-washed idiots? Why do they even use such a badly designed software? Maybe it's because the other 10% of the vendors are even worse?

If a software has issues, bugs, is delayed, does not deliver too much value, the market will figure it out and people won't buy it. But asking to boycott a company is too much.

Anyone who had ever worked tech support would know the answer to that. Of course 90% of people are idiots. That's pretty much the definition of "people".

Most of them use Windows and Office because they have never tried anything else, often don't even realize there's anything else, and because Microsoft has illegally used its monopoly position to force OEMs to preinstall it on all machines, paying MS even when customers don't use their software. This has been proven in court in this and many other countries, and while Microsoft flaunts the U.S. Government's remedies and uses its illegal gains to pay the fines, it is a fact that they are convicted criminals.

As for the other vendors, have you even tried them? Mac OS X is an unbelievably beautiful, reliable, and powerful Unix, and has the best-engineered applications on the market. It's not even a fair comparison, it's like going 30 years into the future. Linux is an ugly and difficult Unix clone, but it's reliable, powerful, cheap, and runs even on limited hardware. Solaris is an ugly and difficult Unix, but it's reliable, powerful, and these days it's free. Most software developers would be equally happy on any of those three, and far happier than on Windows. Most users would be immensely happier on Mac OS X, and some would be able to use Linux with a little tech support.

Boycotts are a standard use of free speech in this country. You don't just stop using something yourself, you tell people you're not using it, and that they shouldn't either, and here's some nice alternatives.

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I think I just figured out what your overreaction to the boycott idea is, though. You think they're asking the U.S. Government to force a legal boycott of MS. While that's certainly a good idea, given that MS is a criminal organization in violation of U.S. and international law, that's not what Business 2.0 was saying; just that consumers and resellers should refuse to deal with Vista.

I agree with Mark Damon Hughes.

If normal market forces were at play, Yakov would be correct. Being that Windows, and a lot of MS software, can be really bad, most users would quickly bail if given a choice.

The problem is that normal market forces are not at work. It is a fact that most OEMs are virtually forced to pre-install Windows, and nothing else, otherwise they face pricing punishment from Microsoft (this has been proven time and time again). Being that most users don't even know there are alternatives, and much less know how to install an operating system, or even have a concept of what an operating system is (a lot of non technical users simply think their PCs are called "Windows"), they can't or won't bail. Therefore, Microsoft can do whatever it wants, and tick off users as much as they want, and price gouge as much as they want, and put out substandard software as much as they want.

And it is really looking like Vista is shaping up to be a bloated heap of dung. I've been following it's progress, and watching MS drop promised feature after promised feature, and looking in horror and disgust at the ridiculous CPU, Memory, and video card requirements, and I've been thinking that a boycott would be a good thing. The thing is, most people's current PC's won't be able to handle Vista, so Vista's uptake will be entirely based on new PC purchases. Business uptake will be particularily slow, as most businesses have already made major investments in PC hardware and Windows licenses, that there will no benefit to go through that huge investment from scratch, until the current hardware gives out.

One thing I will disagree with Mark Damon Hughes is the statement "Linux is an Ugly Unix". Wrong. PCLinuxOS, SuSE, Mandriva, Freespire, Xandros, Mepis, Ubuntu - are all Linux Desktop oriented distros that are both gorgeous to look at, and super, super easy to install and use (HD detection is stellar, and all configuration can be done in GUI). These desktop oriented distros are approaching Mac OSX beauty and ease of use.

With Mac and desktop oriented Linux distros improving rapidly, and with Vista looking scary, natural market forces will dictate that Mac and Linux stands to gain major market share. That's if natural market forces are allow to exist.