[Rolken]

So I upgraded from XP Home SP1 -> XP Pro XP2 today, and the majority of programs on my computer broke. Dreamweaver, Firefox and Thunderbird (among others that I just don't use often) won't run at all, Trillian required a flogging before it'd start, my third party windows themes conked out, etc.

Why does anyone use Microsoft products, again?

oh yeah, cause there's no alternative.

</rant>

[General Throatstomper]

Why does anyone use Microsoft products, again?

oh yeah, cause there's no alternative.

</rant>

[snapback]5557[/snapback]

Exactly. Bill Gates, being the corporate genius he is, found a way to reach out to many software develepors/computer programmers/people who make computerized things in general so that they make their products compatible with Microsoft Windows and little else, so anybody who doesn't buy Microsoft Windows is eventually forced to upgrade to Microsoft once their model becomes so obsolete they can do very little with it. Then Bill gets more money to make the industry even more of a monopoly for him. Other computer companies can't compete, so they merge with Micrososft, and the developers for Microsoft need to make very few improvements on their older models. So far, the only other major computer company that is still bothering Microsoft is Dell, but they probably don't even get 1/100 in sales of what Microsoft does per year, and so won't be around for that much longer.

[ZekeSulastin]

Exactly. Bill Gates, being the corporate genius he is, found a way to reach out to many software develepors/computer programmers/people who make computerized things in general so that they make their products compatible with Microsoft Windows and little else, so anybody who doesn't buy Microsoft Windows is eventually forced to upgrade to Microsoft once their model becomes so obsolete they can do very little with it. Then Bill gets more money to make the industry even more of a monopoly for him. Other computer companies can't compete, so they merge with Micrososft, and the developers for Microsoft need to make very few improvements on their older models. So far, the only other major computer company that is still bothering Microsoft is Dell, but they probably don't even get 1/100 in sales of what Microsoft does per year, and so won't be around for that much longer.

Erm, why exactly does Microsoft hate Dell?  Dell is one of the largest manufacturers and vendors of computers based on the x86 architecture.  What OS is by bar the most common on x86 boxes?  Windows!  MS sells a crapload of licenses to Dell, because Dell sells a crapload of PCs.  Microsoft itself doesn't sell any hardware beyond peripherals; they do not make their own complete computers.  Thus, much of their money comes from software installed on OEM PCs from Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway, etc ... their two best known competitors in the OS world are Apple, with the Mac OS, and the zillions of Linux distributions.

Dell is becoming the Wal-Mart of the PC world - low prices to undercut and destroy the competition.  They'll be around for a while.

To summarize: MS = software company.  Dell = hardware company.  They need each other.

P.S. I too dislike MS products.

[Taco]

So that's why Mozilla firefox wasn't working for me

if we cant use thunderbird, does that mean we cant use our soniccenter email accounts?

:(

wait, it doesnt matter. I never got mine to work in the first place

:(

[Taco]

So that's why Mozilla firefox wasn't working for me

if we cant use thunderbird, does that mean we cant use our soniccenter email accounts?

:(

wait, it doesnt matter. I never got mine to work in the first place

:(

[Rolken]

Well, I reinstalled windows. currently in the long tedious process of downloading and installing a bunch of other crap.

ninty do you need something? :o