An Open letter to Ms from "an Old Fart"

Dear Ms

I regret now that I'll shortly be leaving you for around 95% of my computing needs --

You've been an organisation that I've been associated with (not as an employee but as a home user and also at work on many contracts at different clients in many industries over the years) for most of my later adolecent and adult life - even as I edge gradually towards retirement. I've enjoyed the ride and on the whole I think the relationship was excellent for both parties.

I remember with a fondness those "Heady Days" when you were a fledgling company striving against the once mighty IBM in providing a system that actually bought PC's into the realm of everyday Users. Of course there were a few gliches on the way - you shouldn't have given up over OS/2 in the fight with IBM -- a really good multi-user and multi-tasking system - who knows where Windows might have been if that route had been continued

I still remember trying in vain to get some sort of Networking going with Windows 3.11 and tearing my hear out - saying it shouldn't be that difficult -- a lesson that I don't believe Ms has STILL got right -- any micky mouse Linux distro has almost no networking problems whatsoever straight out of the box !! but we got it working in the end and it was quite fun.

Your pinacle was reached I think with the Windows 2000, Windows 2003 server and the later versions of XP(SP3) . W7 made a valliant effort but the hardware has changed so much - mobiles, tablets, embedded etc that W7 was never going to go into that particular area.When Bill left the whole company seemed to be going rudderless like an Oil Tanker out of control. Your Office suites up to Office 2010 at least supplied the stability and reliability of products that we had come to get used to under Bill Gate's custodianship.

The current line up is an unmitigated disaster - Windows 8 (original) was so hopeless for traditional and loyal users that they all started looking in droves for possible alternatives - and they are NOW OUT THERE. Windows 8.1 is better and should have been the original Windows 8 .

Buying a failing mobile phone company and then deciding to create an ANDROID phone (for goodness sakes) was an idea that even a 6 year old could see was totally stupid. Windows 8.1 on a phone makes sense -- but you need to get rid of those hideous Nokia handsets and go UP MARKET where the money is and get people to buy say nice sleek burnished metal phones -- why should anyone want to swap a nice Samsung S5 for a hideous looking "Also ran" cheapo looking Android Nokia phone.

You relentlessly march on to Subscription services and the Cloud is another area that will be turning many users world wide away from a company they've done business with for well over a quarter of a century.

As Linux gets ever more stable - including excellent hardware detection and plug 'n play with mostly FREE and OPENSOURCE software which in nearly all cases works as perfectly acceptable alternatives to Windows products your ability to retain customers looks increasingly fragile.

It's not to late to go back to your roots. It's been for the most part an enjoyable ride - but without some drastic changes it might be ending for me soon

Yours XXXXXXXX

Cheers
jimbo

Just out of curiosity have you made a decision on your next OS , Personally I like the new version of Linux Mint ( I think it is 17)

Hi there

I like LM17 - but I use OPENSUSE 13.1 as it's incredibly stable and robust and backed by NOVELL/SUSE -- big players in the corporate server market after Red Hat. Their KDE development is also second to none.

I'm still using Windows XP for some old hardware (will keep using that for a while) and currently Windows 8.1 - but gradually finding alternatives for Windows programs that work just as good or better.

Photoshop is one that I can't find a decent alternative for - the Gimp is good but I need some of the professional features of Photoshop CS6 and Office 2010 is also hard to beat -- although Kingsoft Office (now WPS office) is getting amazingly good. It doesn't have an email client yet but KDE's built in email KMAL I find perfectly OK now.

Windows 9 had better be spectacular to keep me on board. If you haven't tried Linux distros recently - you really should try --all are relatively stable, decent package managers, Plug'nPlay and read and write NTFS / FAT32 without any problems -- Linux today is as far away from Linux of only even two years ago and is as much removed from those versions as a Penny Farthing Bicycle (circa 1900) is removed fom a modern multi-geraed incredibly strong and lightweight ceramic frame bycycle of today's standards. Best of all almost ALL the software is entirely FREE and open source.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

I like LM17 - but I use OPENSUSE 13.1 as it's incredibly stable and robust and backed by NOVELL/SUSE -- big players in the corporate server market after Red Hat. Their KDE development is also second to none.

I'm still using Windows XP for some old hardware (will keep using that for a while) and currently Windows 8.1 - but gradually finding alternatives for Windows programs that work just as good or better.

Photoshop is one that I can't find a decent alternative for - the Gimp is good but I need some of the professional features of Photoshop CS6 and Office 2010 is also hard to beat -- although Kingsoft Office (now WPS office) is getting amazingly good. It doesn't have an email client yet but KDE's built in email KMAL I find perfectly OK now.

Windows 9 had better be spectacular to keep me on board. If you haven't tried Linux distros recently - you really should try --all are relatively stable, decent package managers, Plug'nPlay and read and write NTFS / FAT32 without any problems -- Linux today is as far away from Linux of only even two years ago and is as much removed from those versions as a Penny Farthing Bicycle (circa 1900) is removed fom a modern multi-geraed incredibly strong and lightweight ceramic frame bycycle of today's standards. Best of all almost ALL the software is entirely FREE and open source.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

ubuntu is a good one as well

I hate the "Cloud". As long as I live, maybe shorter than longer, I will not put all my files and privacy in the hands of storage in the sky. I would rather lose everything I have from my drive crashing than upload it to who knows where.

PS: I really have nothing to hide, I grew up in a different time is all. Privacy is precious to me and it seems to be getting eroded more and more. I don't think the younger generations really understand privacy. Not with Facebook, Twitter, selfies, you name it.

popeye said:

I hate the "Cloud". As long as I live, maybe shorter than longer, I will not put all my files and privacy in the hands of storage in the sky. I would rather lose everything I have from my drive crashing than upload it to who knows where.

PS: I really have nothing to hide, I grew up in a different time is all. Privacy is precious to me and it seems to be getting eroded more and more. I don't think the younger generations really understand privacy. Not with Facebook, Twitter, selfies, you name it.

Click to expand...

Between the mattresses is good for me!
So much data is superficial and intangible anyway!

I don't keep my money in my home, under the mattress. It's in a bank. I haven't stored my email locally in years, it's been tucked away in gmail and accessible from my phone, and computers for years. My wife and i use drobox as it's an extremely easy way to have files easily available to both of us, and even though I have a file server at home, if I lose all of my computers and my house burns to the ground, my data will still be on dropbox. All of my new music is purchased via Amazon music, and is stored in the cloud. All of my books are purchased for the Kindle and are stored in the Amazon cloud. For me, having the ability to get to my files, from anywhere, from almost any device has proven more beneficial to me and I'm willing to accept some of the risks.

I'm not afraid of the cloud, I'm just safe with it. I use encrypted password databases, and don't store critical private information in the cloud. I made offsite backups of my file server regularly.

Daxter said:

ubuntu is a good one as well

Click to expand...

Linux Mint is based from Ubuntu.

Hi there
"The Cloud" is fine for some things - but there's a whole slew of other stuff I'd rather not have in the Cloud -- My tax returns, business documents, projects I'm working on where I've signed "Non Disclosure agreements", and other private material. IMO HDD space is so cheap that even if I had to recover 15 TB (Music, Video, 10 years scanned business docs - Our tax jurisdiction requires copies be held for 10 years !! - seems excessive to me but that's the Law here -- and all sorts of other stuff) I could easily do it overnight while sleeping.

I've got stuff archived off site too. I.e not stored in my primary home.

I've been reading today about how the Russians have hacked into 1.2 BILLION names and passwords -- pretty well anything can be de-crypted eventually until we start using Quantum computers.

BBC News - Russia gang hacks 1.2 billion usernames and passwords

Cheers
jimbo

I don't think you heard the news, the Nokia X was killed off by Microsoft. I'd rather take a well built Nokia Windows Phone than a samsuck galaxy that needs a bulky case for protection because they're known for being rather delicate electronics.

But as they say in business, "Lose one customer, gain two."

Coke Robot said:

I don't think you heard the news, the Nokia X was killed off by Microsoft. I'd rather take a well built Nokia Windows Phone than a samsuck galaxy that needs a bulky case for protection because they're known for being rather delicate electronics.

Click to expand...

We have handfuls of Samsung Galaxy's at work. My wife and I each have one at home. I have friends who have them. I don't recall a single broken Galaxy. I do however know of many, including those at work with iPhones with broken screens.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
"The Cloud" is fine for some things - but there's a whole slew of other stuff I'd rather not have in the Cloud -- My tax returns, business documents, projects I'm working on where I've signed "Non Disclosure agreements", and other private material.

Click to expand...

Agreed, it's not for everything. I've not yet heard of a single cloud proposal which completely removed any potential for local storage and forced you to only be in the cloud.

I don't want my tax returns in the cloud...but then again my banking is online, my credit cards are online, my paychecks can be looked up online, my mortgage is available online, my school loans used to be online (before they were paid in full)....so the vast majority of what compromises a tax return is already out there at no doing whatsoever of my own.