Open Letter to Microsoft on Technology

VISTA: Cure worse than the Disease?

"Me and Microsoft were pals." In the face of all the independents who love the underdog, doing things themselves, and openly rebelling against "The Man," I relied on Microsoft products. I've worked with high technology since the mid-1960s, and used such giants as Hewlett Packard, TMC, and a host of other superior manufacturers with great results.

The statements in this article are my opinion, and based on my experience. Others may have had different experiences with the companies named. The criticism is intended as constructive. Do it better!

We were pals. I always suspected that it was a one-way relationship, and now the relationship is getting thorny. I operate a small business that does primarily written communications, Web publishing, publishing, and a lot of associated work. I'm it - no employees. I'm my own IT department - if my computer has a problem, I have to solve it. I don't have time for service calls and lengthy telephone support conversations, and at the rate things are going with computer problems I would go broke. My computer is half developer related and half communications related. Of necessity I write computer code in at least five languages, probably eight, and am happier on most days when I actually don't have to write code. You could say that I'm computer literate.

I depend on my computer to make a living - meager living - but I get by. Last year I noted that Windows XP was becoming unreliable - doing all kinds of funky things over a period of a year's worth of updates - and my computer was getting old, so I upgraded to a new Asus M2N-E SLI with an AMD Athlon 64 dual core 6000, and 2G RAM. I know, Nerdy stuff. Respected products with the technology to do the job. I installed Windows VISTA Ultimate. I thought that VISTA had been out long enough to resolve new software problems and be reliable.

Unfortunately the Macintosh commercials are true. I'm now in therapy. From October of 2007 to May of 2008 I have worked on VISTA problems almost more than I work to make a living. I still have unresolved problems, and apparently so do many who report on the Internet. They report problems, and the Microsoft MVPs, and all the other technical guys who love to help, and all the support forums list the problems with no answers that work.

At first I thought it was strange that I had to monitor file transfers across the same network that I used for years with no problem. The transfers hang up. "Try Again?" it asks. And then I found that Windows Explorer won't even transfer files from one directory to another without hanging up on some file, and I have to click "Try Again." Try again on a file copy?!! Windows Explorer constantly crashes. Monitoring these eat up my time.

The problems are endless. I run into permissions problems all the time. I get alerts telling me that I don't have permission to do something. I'm the only operator. I'm the administrator, and I'm always in administrative mode. Who do I need permission from, the computer gods at Microsoft? There generally is no way around the problem. This stops me from doing necessary things. It costs me money.

I start a process, go to do something else, and come back and the process hasn't begun. I have an alert asking me if I really want to do this. I click yes. It doesn't believe me and asks me again. This is time and money I'm wasting.

At least Microsoft gets its alerts on top where you can see them. Other manufacturer's products freeze, and a half hour later you find the alert under several other programs you are running. Don't their developers know how to put the focus on an alert or put the alert always on top?

The Web is changing and newer character sets are being used. So I considered upgrading some development products. I downloaded a trial version of Sharepoint to see if it would be useful for UTF-8. I kind of like the idea of a WYSIWYG interface. I found that Sharepoint still thinks in terms of Windows 1252. 1252?!! The Internet has always been 8859-1. The entire Internet, the World Wide Web, is 8859-1. It was never 1252, and Microsoft has been serving up 1252 for years. What arrogance. What an uncooperative attitude. This and price are what drives people to Linux.

You see character set (or more technically "code page") problems on the Internet and in emails very frequently. Newspaper publishers are particularly affected. Instead of a character displaying as it should, such as an apostrophe (who uses those?) you see a box or a question mark. This happens when a product using the Windows 1252 character set is used on the Internet. Text created in Word, PowerPoint, and RoboHelp use 1252, and some of the 1252 characters are not the same, or even in, the 8859-1 set. Even though most people have a Windows operating system which can display all code pages, when text is used in this way the correct character set is not identified for a variety of reasons. Even if the person creating the text knows this, the server will change the code page specification to 8859-1, unless the file is transferred as a binary. What I often have to do as a writer / publisher is go into the code, and manually change the characters (I use search and replace tools for this). The robust versatility that Microsoft promotes in its product line simply gets lost in translation, even for very technical people. While I always applaud Microsoft for trying to do more, there is a line between promoting progress and just being uncooperative because you can. Hopefully the switch to the UTF-8 character set will resolve this 12+ year ongoing problem.

I downloaded the Expressions trial version. During the installation it said I wasn't running Service Pack 2 (which is Windows XP), and refused to install. Microsoft can't even identify its own product. For an editor, I can do better with Kompoze (which is a really great product, and it is free. It doesn't know what a paragraph tag is though, so I actually use a text editor (Notepad + +, or sometimes HTMLKit) to write HTML most of the time, like now, or FrontPage if the tables inside tables get too confusing.) But searching for XP on VISTA? Using 1252? What is Microsoft thinking? Never mind, I don't enter into other's insanity - it's an endless trap. 

I have Microsoft important security upgrades to install for Office 2003, including Service Pack 3. 2003 works for what I need. The upgrades refuse to install. I've gone through all the usual stuff, including endless searches on the Internet and Microsoft for solutions, more than once. I get an error code that means nothing and you can't find anything more. I gave up. I hid the updates. The products work well. I'm behind four firewalls and run Windows Live OneCare which protects me from viruses in documents and Web sites. Even OneCare has occasional problems, like referring you to useless information, but at least it doesn't eat 50% of my CPU time or endlessly hang like other virus products (at least so far). It even finds and shares local printers across the network. I would recommend it. Microsoft so far is doing things right with OneCare.

Microsoft's prescription for security is to put us all in jail, and leave those who want to harm us running around free, rather than fix the security inroads. The computer has so many restrictions now that you can't operate it. I typically will use Firefox for off-server testing of Web pages just to avoid Internet Explorer's additional two security steps. Firefox appears to have around 30% of the browser market now. Is security mania why? Not that Firefox doesn't have problems. I have one Web site with a standard table that is frequently added to, and Firefox won't recognize the first two rows of standard hyperlinks in the table. After the position changes to the third place, it will finally recognize them. Drives you nuts.

I have a Hewlett Packard C5280 printer for those times when I need to print in color, or to just scan something. To install it, I have to locate all running services and stop them. Very time consuming. Every second time I print with it, the print spooler locks up. I have to reboot. I actually have to reboot VISTA! Hewlett Packard's problem? Microsoft's problem? Who knows. After 60 years of computer development, do you think these two manufacturers could conquer the print spooler? Or an installation? Do you think?

Do you think I would purchase a product from either of these companies right now? I have repeatedly updated the printer software in hopes they had a fix. It costs me a couple of hours time and money to do this, besides the reboot time. In the mood I'm in, I'll buy a different printer next time. Maybe Kodak. Not an Epson. I used to have an Epson laser until it finally wore out. After having met some of their marketing researchers in 2001, I'm not likely to ever buy one of their products again. Nasty people. After meeting them, I switched back to HP printers, and purposely passed them up to buy the C5280. I'm influenced by attitudes - people reflect company attitudes, and attitudes are reflected in product quality and value.

Adobe? I unfortunately have to use Adobe products. My opinion of Adobe is that they are so greedy to make a buck that they are perhaps the worst company in the world to deal with. You won't run their software without paying big bucks for it. I wouldn't run them at all if I didn't have to. I can't get Adobe Acrobat to make internal links on documents on 2003 or 2007, on VISTA. It hangs up. I have to move documents to my XP machine to do it. Other Adobe products get hung up on the licensing mechanism and won't install. I uninstall everything and do it again. Sometimes it works. Other times (PhotoShop) I just moved to another product: Corel PhotoPaint. I have a low tolerance for incompetence, especially when accompanied by arrogance and greed.

When I right click on a file in Windows Explorer, I often get an Adobe update alert. Huh? This is unbelievable - they aren't even related. I would love to get all Adobe products off my computer. The overall support for VISTA is woefully inadequate. The worst news in the world was when Adobe purchased RoboHelp, which I sometimes have to use. After they purchased it, there were major questions whether they would support it or just let it die. The 2005 WYSIWYG interface doesn't work at all now on VISTA (it previously did!), so I use a different tool, which is just as well given its limitations. Obviously support has stopped for that product, and the only way they will allow you to continue is to plunk down $500.00 for a new one that still has no realistic support for CSS, and no other valuable product improvements. One good developer could upgrade that product with his eyes closed. I won't pay it. I pay money for value, not license.

Adobe's business model is to go to software applications on the Web for which you will pay for each use. That should cost us. Here is my business model. Use only the Adobe applications that are absolutely required - for the rest use any kind of freeware, other business application, or any other workaround that is not Adobe. If you don't have to automatically make links in Adobe PDFs during the conversion, there are several free or inexpensive PDF programs that will work for you.

By the way, I salute Adobe's competitor Corel for their dedicated support of Windows VISTA. It's a challenge. I don't have the newest version of Corel Draw, but the one I have works well. Hopefully Adobe won't suck up that company too, to stop that nonsense.

New products are nice, but I don't purchase them unless I have a real need. Upgrading a computer doesn't mean that I'm going to purchase all new products. I have some applications that go back to 1998, maybe farther. With over 50 programs that I use frequently, I need the programs to be supported. Small business is 80% of the business in the US, and few of us can afford to upgrade up to 50 programs when we replace computers or operating systems (every three to four years). A third of my work each day is unpaid volunteer work for local organizations and international publications, that make no money, so my budget is really small.

Microsoft tells me where I must put my files, how to display my files in Explorer, how to display open files on my task bar, which directories I can enter, which files I can open, which files I can attach (not zip files any more), and now you can't copy text from alert dialog boxes.... It's endless. I dislike all of it. I'm flexible, I'm not one of those people who got hung up on Windows 3.1 and WordPerfect. I often work in software development and new ways of doing things - I like improvement and change. But I want the flexibility to do things the way that works best for me, not have my taskbar functionality changed and limited in the middle of the night. Or I spent two hours one day trying to send a ZIP file to a client by email, and then across a VPN network. Finally I changed the extension and it worked. Microsoft didn't bother to tell me - no alerts, nothing. This cost me time and money. Thanks a lot.

Unfortunately computers are complicated. Even pros do things that end up in trouble. My son, a network engineer, is travelling out of state today to straighten out PC installations for a group of engineers who are constantly doing something they shouldn't on their computers and eating up more support time than the entire rest of the world-wide organization. But the fact is, Microsoft makes computers complicated.

Microsoft could do much better in un-complicating computers. They need to have most of their developers do nothing but refine the platform and programs for usability - especially, usability when there are problems. They can make computers that understand the problem, find the solution, and fix themselves. As computer literate as I am, I can imagine what life is like for people who use the computer as an office tool but know very little about it. It's unnecessarily costly. For home users purchaing VISTA must be like purchasing a nightmare!

I haven't had such problems with a computer since Windows ME. One thing that I learned in releasing high technology equipment is that you don't release a product with flaws - the market hates it and goes to a competitor. I saw it happen repeatedly with medical equipment in the rush to market. I've given up on VISTA. VISTA is as problematic and unreliable as ME, and XP was getting that way.

Well, Microsoft, you've seen my business plan. Use Adobe, Epson, and my experience with medical equipment for examples of how it really works. Right now I'm wishing for one of three things, maybe 4:

1. Microsoft would Roll back to Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and block updates. I would gladly go there, and in reality I am very likely to at this point. I may have to, to stay in business. I simply can't afford the problems with VISTA. Probably the next time that I have a problem, I will buy another Windows XP program and install it. I told my son, the network engineer now charged with platform migration of a major world-wide company that is looking at VISTA, before you migrate to VISTA, hire several people to spend hours and hours working on individual VISTA problems, create a ghost to reinstall when there are problems, and don't update the platform or update any purchased software. It is the only way to survive. He told me the same thing - that is basically how they have learned to operate anyway with XP.

2. Google would create a new operating system, based on Ajax, and freeze it. I like Google's attitude. (I consider Yahoo!'s attitude to be like Adobe, which is probably why Google makes money and Yahoo! has troubles.) Unfortunately their Google desktop search tool continuously dominated 50% of my CPU time months after installation, slowing other programs, so I'm cautious about  hoping for this solution.

(Note that I use Apache, and understand why developers like to use Linux as a development and server platform, but Linux is primarily for developers and servers, not users, and case sensitivity (Linux and Unix) only causes problems, especially when the Internet is supposed to be case insensitive. I once switched a Web site to a Linux server and wished for a year that I hadn't due to the case sensitivity problems. It cost me a lot of visitors and good will when the links from other companies failed. I finally moved my sites back to a Windows server. I recently had another problem when I tried to change case for developer convenience, unaware they had already hardwired it into their code. This is one reason why you stick with companies like Microsoft. Well, considering 1252, and former browser incompatibility problems with Internet standards, and VISTA, maybe you look for newer, better companies. Firefox is doing well.)

3. Microsoft would create a platform for those who don't want security that is worse than the disease. I want out of jail and VISTA he..

4. Maybe the Chinese or S. Koreans will develop a good operating platform. They are actually competitive and responsive to the market, and it won't contain lead, unlike VISTA. Right now I would say the odds are in favor of it happening. I'm not the only one upset with VISTA problems and actively looking for alternatives and feeling as trapped as an SUV driver by rising gas prices. Or maybe some great developers out there will create an independent platform with Java. Or maybe Mozilla (Firefox) will, or Sun.

Surely one of them can at least make a PDF maker that works completely. I've worked with WordPerfect, Word, RTF, and PDF internal tags, and see that the necessary code to convert documents to PDF isn't that difficult (or wasn't in 1998). I'll pay you what it's worth: $100.00 - the same price as an entire operating system, or the same as a word processor that can convert documents to PDF. Adobe wants $449.00 today (05/13/08) for their Pro version.

The bottom line in business is reliability. I can work with XP SP2 - I don't even need VISTA. Nothing on VISTA matters to me until VISTA is reliable, and the products that can operate on it are reliable. Reliability is a given, a prerequisite, an essential, a must have, a deal breaker, a show stopper, number one priority.

The statements in this article are my opinions, and based on my real experience with and observations of these companies. I'm not in therapy. My criticism is meant as constructive, and my hope is that these companies improve their products because of market forces. Others may have had different experiences and have different opinions.

- Scott

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