Firefox Continues To Cause Grief at Microsoft

In an ongoing, amazing development, Firefox is clobbering Internet Explorer. It's far from the end, but there are signs all is not well in the browser department in Redmond.

Information Week's 7 April 2008 issue has the market share report for Internet Explorer.

Month	% Share
Jan 2007	88.7
March 2007	86.0
October 2007	80.1
December 2007	77.7

This just pleases me to no end. Granted, it's not just Firefox but other browsers such as Opera and Safari. But any dent in Microsoft's armour is a good thing. Every time Bill gates has stress, I lose a little of mine. When he has a bad day, I have a good one. Between Firefox and the EU, perhaps he's developing an ulcer.... :)

Oh and let's not forget Open Office. I have no idea why it won't hit critical mass: it does everything Office does and more and it can read/write Office documents just fine. We've installed it at work with no issues. Though I will admit we use Word/Excel type documents only and haven't tried the other modules except to play some Powerpoint training slides. Try it at your company. It comes in all flavours Mac, PC, UNIX, etc.

The article makes some special points "... IT departments are moving to support [Firefox] in the enterprise Web apps. That should be less than reassuring to Redmond."

The article also talks about how IE8, forthcoming soon, will break a number of web applications even though it is supposedly more standards friendly. Many non-commercial sites, such as mine, don't even test to IE specifications because they simply aren't standards. Web standards are just that: standards. IE is a collection of crap that makes writing a site to be compliant a pain. I've made sure my corporate site works with IE -- that is you can view it -- but it looks and works much better in Firefox. It makes me angry I have to do even that.

In other amusing news, Microsoft is already readying the replacement to Vista. So despite their claims, it's obviously not going as well as they'd like. No spin can fix that except to a true moron.

More Nails For Windows Vista's Coffin

Another person has added to the list of reasons that Windows Vista is now looking more like the infamous Windows ME than the future of Microsoft's. I have many posts about Windows Vista (see the tags below) but this is the most important one of them all. Microsoft has turned on itself.

And Dave Jewell in his article Vista-End of the Dream says it's got a simple reason: unmaintainability. I agree with the conclusion, but before reading the article, I have to admit I was highly sceptical about his claim. But, being a code geek myself, I think he may have a point. There are many reasons as I've said before -- even many of the people in Microsoft are opposed to Windows Vista and the disaster it represents.

I want to throw out something in support of Mr. Jewell which he missed upon, and it's important. He mentioned Apple and their multiple releases of new versions of operating systems. That's great. However, he got the logic wrong and that logic supports his arguments. Over the years Apple has totally and completely abandoned their old operating systems and re-written them from the ground up: the biggest and most famous was ditching OS-9 in favour of OS-X -- however it happened when they went from ProDOS to GS/OS which introduced resource-forked files and it also happened between OS-6 and OS-7 when they introduced colour (wow) and multi-tasking where more than one application was actually running at once (multi-finder). This is an oversimplification, but it gives you something to look at.

Apple isn't afraid to throw everything away, tell developers "here's our new path" and then they boldly (and sometimes stupidly, I shall admit) go marching down that path without ever looking to see if anyone is following. Apple has a fantastic success rate with this sort of thing. It's coming soon to the iPod line if you want to know my opinion on the matter. And Apple isn't stupidly building DRM into their entire operating system -- it is built into specific applications which requirement and not shoving it down everyone's throat regardless of the conditions.

Another Blow To Vista

In another blow to Microsoft's latest version of Windows, "Vista", Dell has been forced to backtrack its Windows Vista only decision (news article), and is now shipping XP based systems due to overwhelming demand from its customers. While I am torn at whether or not to blog this because I hate Dell more than almost any other company in the USA except for, perhaps, Aetna Insurance, my distaste for Windows compels me to report this.

I am also shocked that Dell has bothered to listen to its customers, because quite frankly, based on the feedback in my other post on Dell, they haven't got very many fans. Apparently, Microsoft can't be quite as happy with Windows Vista's rollout as they have been claiming.

For more on Dell, Vista, Microsoft, please click on one of the tag links and you'll see all my posts on that particular subject.

Post 300: Microsoft's Arrogance And Stupidity

An interesting article (here) about Windows Vista by Andrew Grygus. It's fitting that my 300th post is yet another tirade against Windows. Actually, it's more my commentary on someone else's tirade. This guy is vehemently anti-Mac and I'm still going to talk about what he had to say because he gets it. Microsoft has gone from bad to worse.

He recounts a famous story where, James Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's Platform Products and Services Group wrote an internal memo saying that Microsoft had lost touch with customer needs and if he didn't work there he'd buy an Apple Macintosh. Allchin retired the day Vista shipped but his memo lives on.

There are many issues with Vista's DRM components and by using them you waive your right to privacy. If you use Vista, Microsoft knows who you are, where you are, and where you computer is physically located. And they can disable your computer. Yes, they can render your computer non-functional if they find it not in compliance. No joke. If you install a driver program and they do not feel it meets the current DRM specification, they can cause Vista to cease to function. You just sold your soul to Microsoft -- aren't you glad? I'm not making this up. Spend some time on Google. I am not anti-PC (yay Linux) but I am vehemently anti-Microsoft and even more anti-Windows. I just don't understand why anyone in his/her right mind would use it.

The answer is often, "we use it at work" -- and that is a reason for you, personally, to use it at work. However, the question is: why would your company allow it? At my office we run an IBM branded AIX based p-series server. Almost our entire company functions using dumb terminals (IBM 3153) connected to this. Do we have some PCs? Yes. Our voice mail system is on an isolated e-machines PC, UPS Worldship runs on another, another that runs QuickBooks (which I am working to make go away), and the Internet station so people can look up stuff on the Internet and run Word and Excel. The last unit will be replaced with a Mac when it expires, but why obsolete something that works. I have a PC laptop but that was for budgetary reasons and it gets maybe 14 or so days of use a year, mostly when I am sent places like China. I won't even go in to the security issues with Windows.

I will, however, ask again why any sane person anywhere on the planet would use a computer when the company that made the operating system can disable your machine? Do you want a company to have that much power over you? Especially when that company is Microsoft?

Seriously, read Andrew Grygus's article here and then James Allchin's internal memo from Microsoft (internal memo) and ask yourself what the hell you think you're doing? There's nothing inherently wrong with an Intel based system* but stick OS-X on it or AIX or Linux, or something that is not Windows. Stop the insanity.

* I prefer PowerPC myself, but that's just me. Geek that I am.


(And that concludes my 300th post. I want to thank my regular readers who subscribe via RSS feed as well as my thousands of itinerant visitors who pass through. Thanks for the e-mails and comments. I like comments.)

Another reason to hate Windows Vista

If you read these DRM comments and still install it, you're a nutter. Seriously, you can't play selected CDs, you can't use selected hardware and cables. It's just screwed. Seriously, I am anti-Microsoft and I gladly admit that but these things are even worse than you could imagine. If you must use Windows, at least stick with XP.

15 Year Microsoft Vet defects

Good bye Microsoft; Pete Wright has now left the building! Yep, Pete Wright, a long time Microsoft pundit and evangelist has, yes, DEFECTED! Hail! Hail!

Read his blog entry (as linked above), for the whole story about why a 15 year veteran of Windows has bolted to the Mac as of yesterday. He says, "My Microsoft career is now officially over. Microsoft don't innovate, in my opinion. Vista looks like a pile of crap compared to Mac OS X" I'd like to welcome Mr. Wright to the world we've all known for years.

He goes on to say about Microsoft's development folks: "and developed by committees to solve every problem you could ever conceive of, while being ideally suited to solving none." We Mac users knew that, and I'm glad he's finally seen the light. Ah, sometimes things are great.

Rumours have been swirling that Vista is a huge disaster on the order of Windows ME which is why it's been repeatedly delayed. Maybe Microsoft has finally lost enough touch with reality that people will run. Unfortunately, we Mac users have also realised the vast majority of people simply aren't smart enough to realize exactly what they're supporting: buggy beta software. Mac users simply don't put up with that. We have standards. Windows users, for the most part, don't realize it's okay to expect more from your computer.

(If you don't like the Mac and prefer Unix/Linux that's fine, too. I'm anti-Microsoft not anti-PC.)