I am generally a fan of Microsoft and their products.
When I hear their competitors and even domestic and foreign government agencies complain that they are getting far too powerful, and that Windows is too dominating, I just shake my head...
See, I grew up in a time when there were MANY different brands and flavors of computers, and nearly none of them talked to another. I had a Texas Instruments 99/4A computer, which was cool and did lots of things (including awesome video games) and I learned basic programming on that machine.
Many of my friends, however, had different computers. Some had the Commodore 64, some the Apple ][, one kid whose dad was REALLY rich, had a genuine IBM PC. All ran programs in "Basic" but all had their own variation of Basic, meaning that programs weren't really transferable from one to the other without a LOT of tweaking. Later, I upgraded to a really sweet NEC PC-8000 which ran CP/M, kind of a precursor to MS-DOS. I loved that computer, but there sure weren't many programs or other files I could swap 'n' share with my friends.
By my senior year in high school (GO 1987!! WOOOOOO HOOOO!!!) the IBM PC and its clones, all running MS-DOS (or the near equivalent PC-DOS) was gaining quite a foothold in the marketplace, and for the first time, a friend could tell me about a really cool game, and then let me borrow the disk so I could try it out... and in most cases, IT WORKED!!
I was hooked.
So now, when I hear people complain that Windows is on too many computers, I realize that they're either hopeless idealists or just plain stupid. Not only are essentially all major programs written for Windows, the other side of the equation is that the diversity they so desire is already taking place.
With high speed Internet now the norm, Web based applications are finally a reality. Don't want to run Microsoft Outlook for email? Use Google's Gmail. Or Yahoo! Mail. These web-based programs have gained so much sophistication that it's hard to argue against them anymore. Google is heading in the same direction with web apps for document creation and management too.
And most of these web apps run on standard webserver components, which exist on both Windows and Linux servers. As the end user, you really have no way of knowing which operating system the server feeding you this blog is running...
So there's my stance on the Microsoft is too powerful argument. But wait, I started out wanting to write about Bloatware... And Microsoft is certainly guilty of programs that get exponentially larger with each revision, and not a lot to show for the change. Forums all over the web are filled with geektrolls crying out that Microsoft is the king of bloat.
But let's just look at some of the historical challengers to Microsoft's empire...
One of the first Anti-MS lawsuits was brought on by Real Audio. I am so happy that they're about as relevant as Dial-up Speed Booster programs. RA said that MS's Windows Media Player was just too much, and that it hurt customers' freedom of choice by already being installed on their new computer. Never mind that at the time, RA had a really good marketshare, so anyone who wanted to stream audio online, went and downloaded RA's player.
Oh, and that player... when you installed it, it would do its very best to hijack every possible area of your computer! Unless you caught it in the act and opted out, it would take over playback for ALL audio file types, as well as video, pictures and more. It would also change your browser's home page to the RA site, add a bunch of new links into your "Favorites" section, and really made a nuisance of itself. And they're saying that MS is overreaching??
Okay, that's ancient history. If you're still with me, you deserve to know what got me on this rant tonight.
I hate "Toolbars".
When I'm browsing the net, I want as much screen space as possible devoted to (shock!) browsing the net. I do NOT want a bunch of toolbars cluttering up my screen!!
To make matters worse, all the handy, must-have programs (Flash, Java, Acrobat Reader) all come bundled with toolbars that you have to opt-out of, or else BAM! You're scrambling to find the uninstall program. I think, in nearly all cases, that when the Java machine starts nagging for updates, it's more because they want to push out the new MSN Toolbar than it is for a security or functionality improvement to Java itself. I think the Adobe products are about 50/50, because they routinely get in the news for really shockingly bad security holes in their software. It's really pathetic that they still try to sell you on the Google Toolbar by saying that it's got a popup blocker, when IE has had built in popup blocking since XP's Service Pack 2 came out almost 5 years ago!
Tonight I opened up an Internet Explorer window (which is becoming more and more rare, as I do nearly all of my browsing in Google's Chrome now - more on that later) and the first thing I saw was...
...the dreaded Google Toolbar at the top of the screen. *Sigh*. Someone - maybe even me - agreed to update Flash, or Acrobat, or Shockwave, and forgot to un-check the "Free Google Toolbar!" button.
So it was off to the Add/Remove programs panel. I selected the Google Toolbar, and was completely stunned to see that it was taking up over 200MB of space on my hard drive. HOW ON EARTH DOES A STINKING TOOLBAR TAKE UP 200MB OF SPACE???
Sorry Google. I love Chrome. I love Earth. I love (and hate) Blogger. I love Picasa. But do us all a favor, and RETIRE THE STUPID TOOLBAR!! I already have IE set to search you from ITS OWN, NATIVE TOOLBAR!!!
Man it makes me mad... Which is why I uninstalled that bloated piece of crap and thought to myself, "Man.. People love to highlight Google as a company that 'Does No Evil' and yet there's that pervasive toolbar that I'd almost classify as viral! I must vent my rage, and where better than on my Google-powered blog?!!"
Geek Out.
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