Those "whoops!" moments

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Xaccers
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Post by Xaccers »

I have a theory that all the older developers at MS have now retired, the ones that remember when computers were clunky and learnt their programming from people who taught them about work processes.
The new lot seem to want to just say "look, we did something new, it's ours, it's got our name on it" hence office 2007 (most common comment I get from users is "this is rubbish, can we go back? I can't find anything!") and to some extent windows 7, which is an improvement over vista (tbh I run vista, our servers are hosted on a vista machine, and mine have never had vista related problems) in many ways, I love the aero snap and the aero peek, so much I've added them to my vista laptop, but I find the new menu system to be vile, removing the classic start menu has seriously put me off the OS (I have it on my work laptop), also having to hack the quick launch toodbar back into existance is a pain, if the option is there then why not make it easy to use? I know you can pin things to the task bar, but IE8 is still unstable so I like to run different sessions of it, and as my laptop doesn't have a middle mouse button, the only W7 way of me getting a second session running would be to right click on the IE shortcut and select it again from the popup list. At least with having the quick launch toolbar back into play I have a proper shortcut to iexplore.exe
Getting to network properties is long winded, so I've had to create a shortcut to network connections as in my job I regularly have to manually set IP addresses for the laptop.
It is faster than Vista on these laptops though, and I've heard reports of people saying it's faster than XP on their old computers.

There just doesn't seem to be much joined up thinking in MS, something Apple cannot be accused of, where they replaced Activesync with Windows Mobile Device Centre in Vista, then didn't update it for W7, and didn't give W7 drivers for W6.5 devices so it's all a bit clunky to get working. Outlook 2010 64bit can't synchronise via WMDC. They've never valued their mobile operating systems, there's a reason these things are called pocket PCs, because they're freaking powerful little devices that can do so much, but MS has never appeared to realise that.


I'm dreading when they decide to go cloud only, although for a while after I can see Linux coming on significantly until they follow suit.
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MS have had the lion's share of criticism, much of it undeserved. As a company they many philanthropic projects, and of course Bill and Melinda have their foundation which has given billions in aid.
Apple on the other hand cancelled their philanthropic projects in '94 to save money at Jobs' request and despite being profitable have not restarted any. He also has a poor record on donations, and a strong record for being an egotistical meglomaniac that is a nightmare to work for.
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Post by Paul-R »

Xac wrote:hence office 2007 (most common comment I get from users is "this is rubbish, can we go back? I can't find anything!")
Absolutely. I'm sticking with Office 2003 for the forseeable future. All the networked machines wher I work have 2007 on and, quite frankly, I can't support the users with it. Fortunately I'm not primary support for the network so it's an SEP (someone ele's problem).

I was actually hoping to make it to retirement without ever having anything to do with 2007 but that now seems out of the window.
Xac wrote:removing the classic start menu has seriously put me off the OS
That's no longer an option? Damn, my XP machines all look like W98 - just how I like it!
Xac wrote:It is faster than Vista on these laptops though, and I've heard reports of people saying it's faster than XP on their old computers.
And that was my only consideration for going to W7. Don't know what I'm going to do when MS support for XP finally ceases.
Xac wrote:Jobs' ... also has a poor record on donations, and a strong record for being an egotistical meglomaniac that is a nightmare to work for.
Yes, I've heard that also. Whilst not being an MS lover I'm certainly not in the Apple camp either as their stuff all seems to be, well not style over substance, but paying heavily for the privilege.
Last edited by Paul-R on 17 Dec 2010, 12:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Sid_the_Squid »

Its true MS have always been a bit disjointed with some of their apps, they are trying to change and create a 'unified experience', I guess it take a while to get all the different project departments on the same design page, frequently even in the same company different dev teams will have their own way of doing this from the other teams in the company, which can be a real problem for creating a unified project.

I know what you mean about the new office apps, I'm still with 2003.
I share your worry about putting everything 'in the cloud', seems the IT industry has a real thing for 'cloud computing' like its something new :roll: :roll:

Having decent backup and sync software is a real must, MS need to pick this up as well, they could do it, they have the resources, As much as I hate iTunes as a media player it is a really good sync and backup manager for iOS devices.

You cant beat Steve Ballmer's stage persona there's a performance I'd love to see live ;)
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Post by Xaccers »

stick with xp
I'm going to stick with vista until I need features that it can't support, or if I need to replace a laptop as I've gotten good at setting up my work laptop so i don't have to venture into the gui too far.
For office 2007 there is a program which gives you the older interface for $65 or something, and I wonder if its popularity is partially behind the slight backtracking in office 2010
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Post by addo »

Sid_the_Squid wrote:...You cant beat Steve Ballmer's stage persona there's a performance I'd love to see live ;)
Where do I start? :lol: Last time I saw the Rolling Stones (1997?) for instance.
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