Yes, I agree. The bugs just seem to pile up, as of lately.

Market the CRAP out of anything/everything.
Buy other products, rename them, halfway make them “Windows Integrated”, and then sell it before its even finished
Throw buzzwords/supposed capabilities around, but then don’t document how to actually do them
Fix SOME of the issues within a year with a Service Pack

It’s getting kind of annoying. Can’t a leading company just actually make good products? Every release in 2007 has been majorly disappointing…

Exchange 2007 (they even state they had to rush to market and couldn’t finish on time)
SharePoint 2007 (has any product had more bugs in release?)
Vista (for real, even now some very weird things tend to happen)
Office 2007
Project Server 2007 (supposedly is SharePoint integrated - riiiiight)

Thanks guys, that will be implemented soon(ish), so we can get somewhat better output.

Great, thanks!

That will further alter the rendering of all standard server templates for better semantic structure…

What you want to alter is the xhtmlConformance Element.

With regards to Google Fanboi’s, I think I might have caught that virues … I think a lot of the stuff that Big G does is brilliant … usually because of the simplicity over complexity mantra.

Jeroen,

Your observation regarding talented people says more about the people than about Microsoft’s tools, I think. People have realized that they are just that, tools, not a key to success.

To some extent, absolutely. Talented people will do good stuff no matter what tool they work with. It ’s just that some tool make it harder to do the right thing.

Morgan,

Good to see you ranting again, it’s been a while.

Solon,

What they don’t have, though, is fanboys, defending every single sneeze from Bill Gates or burying stories on Digg.

Well, I’ve met my fair share of Microsoft fanboys. It’s just that they maybe don’t hang out at Digg.

Actually, the company that I haven’t seen a lot of fanboys for are Google. but maybe I’ve just missed them.

Matt Round,

MS demands too much commitment.

Why lock yourself in when the web is such an open platform?

Good points!

Will,

Absolutely, if you want to, you can do things correctly with .NET.

Alex,

…however I’m not sure what you mean by coming late into the web browser game?

What I was referring to is the mid-1990s when Netscape was everything and IE 3 sucked hard. About that time, Microsoft then made a huge commitment to its web browser (for a couple of years).

The average computer user doesn’t know any better, and unlike the tech heads (which comparitively make up a small market share), they will keep using hotmail, office and windows because that’s what they know.

Absolutely right.

Basically, it feels just as Microsoft were late to understand the power of Internet and coming fairly late into the web browser game with Internet Explorer

I can only agree that Microsoft feel a little behind the game on the web app front, however I’m not sure what you mean by coming late into the web browser game?

To me it feels like IE is a long way behind the competition, but the browser usage stats would definitely disagree.. they still have an incredible grip on the browser market. Their products and development tools are used by millions, and it would be hard for them not to be considered a major player in most markets on the web (barring search).

MS Office has a major foothold everywhere, and if they play their cards right they should be able to combat the online office apps without too much difficulty. They just need to integrate seamlessly into an Office Live situation.

That being said, I looked at Windows Live Hotmail (awful name) and I was not impressed by it at all. However, having an application that is behind the competition has never stopped them from dominating. The average computer user doesn’t know any better, and unlike the tech heads (which comparitively make up a small market share), they will keep using hotmail, office and windows because that’s what they know.

This could slowly start to change, but I think it’s kind of difficult to state that they’re a dead duck. Too many people develop and use their tools.

I use Windows, but stay away from everything else MS based. I’d use Linux if I had more time to learn it and adjust to all the other applications I’m used to in Windows. The Adobe Suite and various music production tools are tying me to windows more than anything else. However I’ve no intention of going near ASP. Give me PHP and MySQL any day. Windows Server? No thanks.

Not to mention, MS just posted record profits. How are they dead? I am by no means a MS fan, but to be realistic, this digg & slashdot promoted idea that MS is some relic is just crap…

So they’ll continue to do well in corporate IT (which is all about spending someone else’s money to make your life easier, going for the ’safe’ option, etc.), but there’s no way I would even contemplate committing indefinitely to Windows on my dev machine, Windows hosting, MS development tools, MS ways of working, etc. Why lock yourself in when the web is such an open platform?

Also, so far I’ve only read praise for Silverlight. And considering how awful Flash is, it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to gain a lot of ground in that area, as well.

As others mentioned, the XBox 360 is currently the standard to which other gaming platforms are compared to when it comes to online playing and content distribution.

In the end, Microsoft has very deep pockets and is chock-full with talented people, starting with Ray Ozzie. They may have to reinvent themselves, just as IBM did, but it’d be kind of foolish to think they have nothing else to contribute.

What they don’t have, though, is fanboys, defending every single sneeze from Bill Gates or burying stories on Digg.

Sure, ASP.NET has some weak points when it comes to following web standards, and the drag-and-drop-features are rarely, if ever, used

ASP.NET is a UI, Accessibility and Standards disaster. Everything simple in web development, has been warped by Microsofts need to be brain-compatible with thousands of VB-Desktop developers, that for most of us, it makes very little sense. It’s mindblowing that they would complicate something so simple, to become so difficult.

If all these VB developers would just get curious about what they were doing, MS might actually have a chance of coming out with a decent web framework. But, ASP.NET is clearly not it.

I don’t think there’s any web framework that can match the power and ease of use of .NET.

Oh, I think that once you open your eyes to it, you will find that a there are several frameworks out there, that are both more powerful and easier to use than .NET.

And several of them are even free as in free beer, and able to run on more than one platform

So, to get back on track … yes, a lot of think that Microsoft is basically dead … there’s very little real innovation at Redmond, most of the stuff is driven by marketing needs and not user needs. Take Silverlight as an example … how many can honestly say they’re excited about yet another proprietary technology from Microsoft, that has the possiblity to be just as buggy and insecure as ActiveX? The only reason for Silverlight, is Adobe’s Apollo, and MS wanting to tie developers into using their platform. Not because anyone needed it … but who needs Apollo, might be the next question?

</rant>

Sure, ASP.NET has some weak points when it comes to following web standards, and the drag-and-drop-features are rarely, if ever, used, but I don’t think there’s any web framework that can match the power and ease of use of .NET.

And this comes from a guy who really doesn’t like Microsoft!

If we take Windows aside (I more and more loose belief in that piece of S…oftware) they have some great products. Their development tools are great and they more and more improve the community-part of it. With free products and a lot of useful information for beginners and experts alike. And the XBOX 360 is by far the most succesful try to start a console market as a software company.

I am not a hater or a lover. I just believe that the dark side is still very weak in them

Your observation regarding talented people says more about the people than about Microsoft’s tools, I think. People have realized that they are just that, tools, not a key to success.

They are doing very interesting things. Especially their R&D department is incredible. I think Microsoft’s problem is translating those innovations to useful products that people want to use. So, no, I don’t think they’re dead at all. They’re just late to the party, which is not surprising for such a large company.