Steve/All Part of being a historian is to be dispassionate about what the actual truth is vs, what we'd like, or how we feel about the subject personally. It's kind of a bummer that you feel that you have to apologize about praising MS's accomplishments. But that's the world we live in. Bill
On Mon, Feb 3, 2025 at 1:13 AM Steve Lewis via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > I might be banished for saying - but, I actually like Microsoft. It's had > up's and downs for sure. Multitasking MS-DOS 4.0, mmhmmm.... > > I like CRLF line endings :) It's more "OG"! It is two separate actions - > if you want to LineFeed and THEN CarriageReturn. Just because we now have > a super fast CRT, don't presume that I want to CR all the time :P But > yes, the whole 8.3 filename thing was a bit of an embarrassment for too > long. But hey, it forces you to be creative with limited resources! > > What Microsoft did to DR (Digital Research) and Stacker was a bit cold > (making Windows difficult to use with DR-DOS in the 90's, and basically > straight up theft of Stacker's tech). Allegedly Microsoft also > deliberately made Net"Scrape" slower than their own IE.. In early 90s, I > did switch from MS-DOS to DR-DOS because at the time, DR-DOS did just have > better features (like the 4DOS features/command line scroll back, tab to > complete, stuff like that). > > I tried "Chicago" early beta, but had OS/2 Warp and happily multitasking a > year before Win95 came out. But the appeal of DirectX eventually drew me > back over for Win98. OS/2 was doing the long-file name support early well. > > For those bash the entire concept of "closed source" and all that: I don't > mind paying a little licensing fee for MPEG (or whatever encoder it is that > part of the cost of Microsoft OS covers). And nope, I've not reviewed a > single line of code in how any of those encoders work. I'm ok with that. > I also don't bust out WireShark after installing any new app or connecting > any new device. I don't pour over the schematics of my hardware either. > Sure, there is some pride in compiling everything you run from source- > OTHO, life is short, at some point I have to have some faith in my fellow > man (just mirror all your stuff before installing anything new) > > Did Microsoft save Apple, twice? Once in 1980 with the Z80 SoftCard, then > (allegedly) again as Apple struggled in 1997? The latter has been > debunked, that it didn't "save Apple" per se, but a solid 7% stake didn't > hurt. I know the whole topic ruffles a lot of feathers. Still, that Z80 > card, I do think it was a bit of a life saver at the time (combined with > VisiCalc, sure). > > > All the hoopla aside - what I like about Microsoft is (or at least in years > past) their manuals, and commitment to helping people learn their systems. > The volumes of software Interrupt books! Those were epic. Books on VB, > Access, Office, or when DirectX came along - tons of literature on all > that, tons of literature about .NET (though the whole Managed C++ thing > drove me nuts). They had mountains of fairly well written books, even back > in BASIC days. Or MS-DOS 5.0, go read that thing again - it's fantastic, > detailing each and every command. I'm slightly biased since I visited the > Microsoft Campus in Seattle (twice), meeting with the Visual Studio team. > They asked for developers to come by and give direct feedback (around 2005, > when VS sucked and they were focused on revamping it). Watching the guy > compile Visual Studio, using Visual Studio, was awesome (and debating with > the core compiler author about why VS still could only show what row your > error was on and not what column; Borland's compiler could tell you which > column also, how hard could it be!). Copy and Paste is one of my favorite > aspects of Windows. I've tried Linux a number of times over the years - > it's terrific for a headless file server or maybe a router, but otherwise, > No Thanks.... If you really learn Windows, there are so many short-cut > keys, I'm still rarely touching the mouse. > > One thing I'll nit is when Microsoft does things like Microsoft Bob or > Cortana. A while back I picked up a year 2000 Presario, and it has > WindowsME with Clippy! (that "taps the screen" for your attention). I'm > stuck with WindowsME on that Presario, because it has a proprietary 50-pin > "Apple-sized" hard drive, but it's not SCSI - no one has figured it out > yet. But that's Presario's fault. As long as we can confidently disable > this crap - which so far, we've been able to. > > Or another nit: how they screwed up Search in Explorer. Then the > worst thing was a rumor that Microsoft was going to remove Paint!! That > really boiled me, I use Paint so often. I'd probably commit to Linux if > they removed Paint :) > > Yes, Microsoft could have done a lot of things better - but after meeting > the Visual Studio team, at least then they really did have some top tier > programmers (most with strong Eastern Europe accents, but still). And I > don't think asking for money for your work/time is evil, especially if in > return you're going to document and support that thing at least for a while > (MFC had a good run...) How coupled their GUI has become to their OS is a > drag, but I'm ok with it - the consistency is good, I can help family > members over the phone. Navigating someone remotely with > "this-distro-flavor-of-xterm" suxs. (though there was a time when I was > big into Solaris) > > That said, I'll confess: I've only ever bought Windows twice in my lifetime > (I mean as standalone, not included with a system), and one of those times > was using a gift-shop voucher that they provided. The secret is that the > old Windows serial numbers on abandoned laptops often still work on newer > versions of Windows. > > I was never much into XBox. And while I had an original Surface (the > "wrong one" that wasn't very x86 compatible, that original ARM trash one I > guess) - and respect that they are still supporting the line - but the name > is just annoying: search "what is the best Surface?" and you just get > results about countertops. (I'm teasing, plenty of ways to learn about the > Surface line - and everyone I've met that actually has and uses one, has > always spoken favorably about it). > > I have numerous co-workers that bash Microsoft all day long. And yeah, > I've had my Windows hourglass twirl around inexplicitly. "I'm not DOING > anything, why am I hourglassed?" But I respect the challenge of trying to > get millions of people to use your platform - and all those drivers > involved. And it's not like *nix and macOS side isn't without > frustrating issues of their own. So, Cheers to Microsoft's 50 :) May they > never remove Paint. > > > -SteveL > > > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 12:19 PM Christian Liendo via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > I was debating sending this, but Microsoft is part of computing > > history and fifty years is a milestone. > > > > https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-50/ > > >
