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So, i need to preface this with a couple comments.* First, I'm so angry right now, and need to vent, and this was the first place i thought to post to.* Second, historically, i've been a pretty big Microsoft fan and have been using MS technologies almost exclusively for the better part of 10 years.* Onto the rant:
Seriously guys, what going on at Microsoft.* I've just spent the better part of a week trying to renew my god-forsaken MSDN subscription, the better part of 4 hours today and it still isnt working properly.* It was a huge pain in the (I need to watch my language) last time (when i signed up for it), and now i'm bordering on the edge of sanity having to deal with the 20+ step process it takes to register my stupid subscription.* In the meantime, I cant install VS2008 to work on the projects I need to work on.* The people in charge of MSDN subscriptions and the eOpen website need to be fired and/or shot.* They are so abominably bad that (1 out of every 3 page loads results in an error page on the site) I'm considering getting rid of our subscriptions and just trying to deal with less and less microsoft software and buying only VS off the shelf.* But I'm at my wit's end.
Next off, product activation.* At best, it's a horrible nuisance for us legitimate customers.* The Activation 2.0 changes are more onerous than Activation 1.0 (which is saying quite a bit), and numerous times, i've had WGA complain that I'm using pirated software when I'm not.* I wonder if this sort of BS is driving customers into Apple's open arms.* I'm seriously considering it for all non-work tasks.
And then there's the .NET Framework.* Seriously guyh... 200 megs... What idiot okayed that?* MSFT wants adoption of it's new ui toolkit which is for building client apps.* So what does it do? It packages a 200 meg redistributable that you need to send with your app.* Sorry Microsoft, my app is 5 megs, I'm not about to ship a 205 meg installer.* Seriously, I wonder what those product meetings were like!* Was there broad agreement that this was the best course of action? Did you guys think that 200 megs was no-big-deal?* Well... you've pretty much guaranteed that my apps will be 100% wpf-free.* Now i'm even more irate that i spent so much time learning the platform.* I even went to a 2-day class on expression blend.* All useless knowlege.
Finally, and i know i'm not being original here, but Vista... ugh.* I just got a new desktop and decided to install Windows Server 2003 on it instead of Vista, and boy am I glad i did.* My machine now runs seemingly twice as fast.* Gone are the 30 seconds it took to unlock the machine, the ridiculous slowdows when memory consumption reached 75%, inordinately long boot times, the black screens as the DWM spazzed out, the redesigned and ridiculously confusing network center, slow network performance, i could go on... I'm never going back.
Ok... so i realize that this rant isn't exactly coherent, but up to 2005 i would have called myself a Microsoft "Fan".* That the beast has managed to irritate and alienate such a loyal customer is unfathomable to me.* I wonder how bad this is going to get.* At any rate, I'll be polishing my Mac development skills in case Windows users defect en masse, as I think that's actually possible now.* I guess a small part of me hopes they do.* That's significant for a developer that's staked a career on .NET.* I also hope that you guys get your act together.
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Seriously guys, what going on at Microsoft.* I've just spent the better part of a week trying to renew my god-forsaken MSDN subscription, the better part of 4 hours today and it still isnt working properly.* It was a huge pain in the (I need to watch my language) last time (when i signed up for it), and now i'm bordering on the edge of sanity having to deal with the 20+ step process it takes to register my stupid subscription.* In the meantime, I cant install VS2008 to work on the projects I need to work on.* The people in charge of MSDN subscriptions and the eOpen website need to be fired and/or shot.* They are so abominably bad that (1 out of every 3 page loads results in an error page on the site) I'm considering getting rid of our subscriptions and just trying to deal with less and less microsoft software and buying only VS off the shelf.* But I'm at my wit's end.
Next off, product activation.* At best, it's a horrible nuisance for us legitimate customers.* The Activation 2.0 changes are more onerous than Activation 1.0 (which is saying quite a bit), and numerous times, i've had WGA complain that I'm using pirated software when I'm not.* I wonder if this sort of BS is driving customers into Apple's open arms.* I'm seriously considering it for all non-work tasks.
And then there's the .NET Framework.* Seriously guyh... 200 megs... What idiot okayed that?* MSFT wants adoption of it's new ui toolkit which is for building client apps.* So what does it do? It packages a 200 meg redistributable that you need to send with your app.* Sorry Microsoft, my app is 5 megs, I'm not about to ship a 205 meg installer.* Seriously, I wonder what those product meetings were like!* Was there broad agreement that this was the best course of action? Did you guys think that 200 megs was no-big-deal?* Well... you've pretty much guaranteed that my apps will be 100% wpf-free.* Now i'm even more irate that i spent so much time learning the platform.* I even went to a 2-day class on expression blend.* All useless knowlege.
Finally, and i know i'm not being original here, but Vista... ugh.* I just got a new desktop and decided to install Windows Server 2003 on it instead of Vista, and boy am I glad i did.* My machine now runs seemingly twice as fast.* Gone are the 30 seconds it took to unlock the machine, the ridiculous slowdows when memory consumption reached 75%, inordinately long boot times, the black screens as the DWM spazzed out, the redesigned and ridiculously confusing network center, slow network performance, i could go on... I'm never going back.
Ok... so i realize that this rant isn't exactly coherent, but up to 2005 i would have called myself a Microsoft "Fan".* That the beast has managed to irritate and alienate such a loyal customer is unfathomable to me.* I wonder how bad this is going to get.* At any rate, I'll be polishing my Mac development skills in case Windows users defect en masse, as I think that's actually possible now.* I guess a small part of me hopes they do.* That's significant for a developer that's staked a career on .NET.* I also hope that you guys get your act together.
More...
View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds