Vent about Microsoft.

jp_nyc

Kick Henry Jackassowski
I have to use Teams to watch a webinar for one of my vendors. First the Teams site tries to launch the app. But the app isn’t supported anymore so I have to use the web site that launched the app. The web site won’t let me log in with a password, it wants to send a code to the Authenticator app. So I install the app and now I have to log in to that. So it sends a login code to the app that I’m trying to log in to. I click to use a password instead. Before I can log into the the app the Teams web site logs me in without any authentication by me. I fucking hate this company, I have hated it for 30 years, and I will probably hate it when I’m dead.
 
I'm old enough to remember when personal computing meant you own the computer and all of the software that you purchased for it. Of course, Microsoft realized years ago that they couldn't stay in business with that model because Office 2000 was really "good enough" for 99% of folks, so they had no reason to buy another update. So, MS moved to the subscription model, along with Adobe and so many others, so now one has to pay them a yearly fee for the privilege of using their products.

When the move to Win11 required a laptop replacement due to hardware requirements, I dumped MS and put Linux on that old laptop. It runs great, is more stable and snappier than Windows was on the same platform. Open source apps exist to do most everything I need to do. They're not as slick or as polished as MS products, but they get the job done and I control them instead of MS. It's like the old days all over again.
 
I have been looking for a new laptop to put Linux on lately but X86 laptops are mostly ugly, heavy, not built to last, and the displays suck if you don’t spend a lot. Hopefully PC makers will see how well those Macbook Neo machines sell and launch competing Arm machines. But my hopes for that are low; PC makers still haven’t launched a competitor to the Macbook Air and they’ve had 18 years to do it. Maybe Huawei or Xiaomi will do it.
 
The company I work for makes ARM based CPU's for laptops. So far they have been working at making it 100% compatible with the Microsoft ecosystem because that is what is most widely used. It's native to Android and linux though.
 
Surprisingly enough, after nearly 30 years in IT, there are tech things that I despise more than Microsoft.


I don't always trust Microsoft products.... they freeze up and require restarts all the time... but they're a predictably painful common denominator.


What burns my toast waaaaaay more in the world is dual authentication that doesn't give you alternatives.... like it sends the code to my personal phone at home instead of my work phone.... or there's a lag which causes the code to time out before you get the email or text before you can type it in. :gah:

The worst though is the greedy mother fuckers who turn everything into monthly or annual charges... they won't let you own something or future proof it... yet their own track record with patches or software support is weak to nil. Those assholes should be dragged to the town square and caned. :mad:
 
I use Apple Mac OS, Windows 10, 11, and Linux Ubuntu. I understand the frustration.

Linux works fine for basic bread and butter tasks, but it has serious limitations, including compatibility issues with other apps and hardware. Apple does a great job integrating their hardware and software. Mac is my favorite for stability, but it has proprietary challenges with other apps and hardware. Windows 10 & 11 have the highest compatibility with other software and hardware. Yet, sometimes figuring out the integration can be a headache. There are certain specific challenges with all of them.

Incidentally, some of the same FREE apps for Linux have FREE versions for Windows. Windows 10 & 11 have WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), so you can run Linux utilities from Windows command prompt. You can run Linux distros from your Windows desktop using VM (Virtual Machine). IIRC LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, WPS Office, and OnlyOffice, are free, open source, and have versions for Windows and Linux. I've only used Libre and Apache in the past.

I have one older laptop I use with both Linux Ubuntu and Windows 10 as dual boot. That way, I don't have to fully give up the advantages of either OS
 
started a job this year that uses the Microsoft suite of software and holy shit, it's unbelievable how bad their programs are - Teams, Outlook, Powerpoint, Windows 11 in general. Slow, laggy, constant bugs, strange design choices that disregard common practices. It's like they created them wrong, as a joke
 
At work, the IT team has done a surprisingly decent job of making sure the M$ shit all works together fairly well. At home, my Legion hasn't yet infuriated me to the point of writing over the whole thing with a clean install of Mint, but I may clean up the old circa-2010 desktop to start testing Minecraft, AzerothCore, and whatever latest and greatest linux DAW is on the streets these days. Does REAPER run natively on Linux yet? Hmm. . .
 
Surprisingly enough, after nearly 30 years in IT, there are tech things that I despise more than Microsoft.


I don't always trust Microsoft products.... they freeze up and require restarts all the time... but they're a predictably painful common denominator.


What burns my toast waaaaaay more in the world is dual authentication that doesn't give you alternatives.... like it sends the code to my personal phone at home instead of my work phone.... or there's a lag which causes the code to time out before you get the email or text before you can type it in. :gah:

The worst though is the greedy mother fuckers who turn everything into monthly or annual charges... they won't let you own something or future proof it... yet their own track record with patches or software support is weak to nil. Those assholes should be dragged to the town square and caned. :mad:
Dude. At work we just transitioned from SAP's previously terrible software to their more recent "upgraded" completely awful software. The transition was supposed to be complete a while back, but they couldn't port a bunch of the transactions we use, so they basically cloned the BIS portion into their S/4HANA product and called it ***GUI. Lol. And I guarantee we're paying a per-seat fee for that, plus whatever the initial cost was, plus customization fees. Welcome to civil service, I guess.
 
At work, the IT team has done a surprisingly decent job of making sure the M$ shit all works together fairly well. At home, my Legion hasn't yet infuriated me to the point of writing over the whole thing with a clean install of Mint, but I may clean up the old circa-2010 desktop to start testing Minecraft, AzerothCore, and whatever latest and greatest linux DAW is on the streets these days. Does REAPER run natively on Linux yet? Hmm. . .
I believe Reaper runs on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows.
 
I don't really have any opinion on teams...I have to use it periodically when I connect w/ various MSFT folks as part of my gig and use the web version w/o much fuss. We're a zoom user as an enterprise and that they keep scope creeping that app to become some weird work facebook thing. Hard Pass.
 
It's getting close to time to wipe the studio computer and reload everything...with all the plugins I own it takes 3-4 days to get it done...
 
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