Guest said:
lawfer, you are the one who needs a history lesson.
MSN chat was killed with the excuse being that chat generated opportunities for pedophiles to have access to minors. Truth, Microsoft was busy with Windows Live and didn't want to support it anymore. Same with groups...they simply didn't want to update the technology and cut it loose (or rather, foisted adult groups off to one company and the remaining groups off to another). Instead of fixing what they had and what was used, they launched Windows Live which, by comparison, has been a resounding failure.
Hotmail's "support" speaks for itself. It's absolutely terrible..even worse than Yahoo's. That's not just my opinion, it's the opinion of other users. There are websites devoted to the horrendous lack of support for it with lots and lots of members sharing their tales of woe.
Microsoft's medialess policy is indeed Microsoft's, and not thought up by OEMs. If you're confused, read this:
http://books.google.com/books?id=rz...=onepage&q=Microsoft medialess policy&f=false
Microsoft admitted it, point blank with the excuse being "it would cut down on piracy". So, treat your customers like criminals and make it virtually impossible to use any of the myriad of fixes posted on microsoft.com that all required an operating system disk to work.
I have been online since the mid 90s and seen things come and go (go mostly). Good apps bought off and killed by competitors, or turned into premium apps, is the way of the world and the way of business. The list is long and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Skype headed down that road. Hopefully, another app will come along to take its place.
I'm not discussing the causes, but simply the effects. You're argument is that M$ has a "miserable" product support, and mine it is "not quite."
As I said, I am neutral on M$. I'm not defending their business practices, I'm defending their reliability as a company when it comes to supporting their products and services.
You say there are a lot of people who complain about the "support," of Hotmail, but like I asked earlier, what support? What software update do you need to make Hotmail better at, well, reading and sending e-mails? Please, I would like to know. I would also like to know why it's still the largest web-based e-mail provider in the world, if there are other alternatives with better "support"?
And I'm not discussing the reason as to why M$ ditched MS Chat, I'm saying there was no need to have an IRC client, when at the time, instant-messing technology was blooming. It was a totally different concept to be able to communicate without the use of a web browser, and without connecting to servers. Just launch up the program and there you go. Like I said: new ideas, protocols, and services were invented in the 90s. MSN Chat is what Messenger is today. Just renovated. The name might have been taken off, but it's the same type of service.
And that media-less policy thing. Regardless of what M$ said or did, they have NO word on whether your newly bought PC comes with a OS disk or not. An OEM such as, say, Dell, has licensed a certain amount of Windows computers in production, with Windows 7, for example. After the OS is bought, it is up to the OEM to include such disks with the product. It's not illegal to (not) do so, as the OEM has already bought the software from M$. In contrast, I've bought 2 Asus gaming notebooks this past year, and both came with an original OS disk, and a drivers disk. So your 11-year-old argument falls short, not only because is not relevant anymore, but because even at the time of that publication, OEMs still had the option to include such disks, and some still do. I personally don't consider not having the original OS disk a lack of "software support." Sure it is corporate greediness, but lack of support
per se? Nah.
And I just said Groups is integrated with Windows Live Messenger! (Just like it was integrated with MSN Chat) It was never cut loose, but merely integrated into a full-featured software. Go download Messenger, and see for yourself.
Windows Live a resounding failure? No, sir, that's what you want to believe. The live services is just behind Yahoo, and YouTube. Yes, YouTube. And ahead of Twitter. Yeah, put THAT into perspective. While you might not like its software, M$'s services are among the biggest (worldwide, that is). You can hate M$ all you want (I'm not exactly fond of their software either), but I give credit where is due.
I'm not saying Skype will be great with M$. I'm merely against the belief M$ has been supporting its software miserably, as you suggested. Like I said on my first comment, I don't even know what to make of this Skype transaction. It could be bad, it could be good... Or a mix of both. Hey, Apple does it that way, and people seem to love it.
