Boycott Microsoft

[JoJo]

I won't be buying an Xbox One but for the foreseeable future, I'll continue using Microsoft Operating Systems and services like Outlook which have generally served me well in the ten years or so I've used them. One bad product isn't enough to be worth boycotting a whole company over.

 

[O maestre]

i do not think you can effectively boycott Microsoft, as an electronic engineering student I have time and time again been surprised by just how much of our technology has a Microsoft patent alongside it thanks to aggressive corporate acquisitions , whether it be hardware, software, complete machines, operating systems, drivers, components or even peripherals along with part ownership of some new outlets. Believe me Microsoft gets its piece of the pie no matter which kind of pie it is. There is a reason that both American and European courts have hauled Microsoft into court on anti trust and monopoly charges. I do not think it can be feasibly done to avoid the company, unless you stop buying consumer electronics all together.

Where theres a will theres a way. Even Oil companies are finally going to get killed off in a 4-5 years time when electric cars get released to the public (that run on solar energy, and actually make more energy then they use). There will be supercharger stations around America.

the problem with your analogy is that oil companies only produce oil, Microsoft is like a conglomerate except they only have one board. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft

and as Lilani pointed out either you are extremely optimistic or oblivious to the practical problems and mostly societal problems in regards to implementing alternative energy solutions. Never mind the fact that we still have to rely on chemical batteries to store energy and we are still far from developing an efficient super-capacitor for charging purposes at the least. Electric cars on a wide commercial scale is only going to happen on the say so of the big oil companies, due to their lobbying they have unprecedented political power as well as financial power, we are literally dependent on their exploits, look at what's happening in North Dakota the boom from that state from gas and oil alone is enough to quash any expectations of commercialization of alternative energies.

 

[thesilentman]

I'm being very picky here I know, but this is something from which I need the numbers to back you up. This is not directed at anyone in particular, but I find it hard to believe that half the IT population doesn't know Linux.

I was very surprised to find out that nobody knew about linux in my legal study class, and Innovation in the Workplace class. Only about half of the people in computer courses knew about it. So it's clear to me that normal people just go out and buy Windows or Mac,
no advertising for Linux, no products on shelves, obviously general people won't know.
Those that do probably won't get it due to it not supporting to many programs/games.
Those that do use it, know thats it's really good, fast operating system and find out that WineHQ solves the issue of program compatibility.

It's not like the buggy initial releases of Microsoft.. seriously I had to wait for a SERVICE PACK for XP, Vista and Windows 7 before I would dare touch them after noticing the performance hit. XP still to this day has network issues for something that should be pretty damn simple, plugging a cable from one PC to another.

I was responding to the incredibly vague statement that I was presented with stating that half of the population doesn't know Linux, but I can see your point. In some cases, this all can be traced to MS' idiotic FUD on Linux. I'm not going to complain here as it'll take up space though. :-S

I guess it's more a community thing to be honest. We're so used to being different in the community to the point where outsiders feel alienated in a sense. In Linux, if you aren't ready to Google and spend some time, you're shown the door rather bluntly.

But it's fixable, spreading the knowledge of Linux. I do it as part of off the side computer restoration. Valve helped a ton as well, with bringing Steam to Linux.

In fact, my whole thought on "Linux can't be for gaming!" smells of a self fulfilled prophecy. If we think that, we're not going to be able to do it even though we have the capability. But I'll stop here, considering I'm littering up this page now. x-D

There's a Linux group here if you're interested: [link]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Escapist-Linux-Users[/link]

Come on in if you'd like. :-D

 

[NoeL]

You're expecting a successful boycott from... gamers? Seriously, you're asking the least disciplined group of people on the face of the Earth to resist throwing their cash at a new toy?

If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that gamers are all bark and no bite. They'll rant and rave but ultimately won't do a damn thing to further their cause if it requires the slightest bit of inconvenience. The only people "boycotting" the Xbone will be the ones that were never planning to buy it in the first place. The rest will be "Yeah, the DRM kinda sucks and I wish they'd stop doing it... but I wanted to play Halo". Absolute fucking joke.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

I don't know what sort of optimistic science-fiction magazine you've been reading, but I'm afraid there's a lot of reality in the way of this dream of yours. The only thing I could see making enough drivers switch to alternative fuel that could have any effect on oil companies is an acute oil crisis accompanied by government programs giving people who can't afford them alternative fuel vehicles. Maybe where you live people are all optimistic about this stuff, but where I live the very idea of solar energy is a joke, and electric cars have never proven themselves as effective as gas.

We know its possible to harness huge amount of energy from the sun for awhile now. NASA has been using a solar array (with over 40% conversion efficiency, but that's to expensive for mass market appeal).

Electric Cars where able to meet the needs of 90% of Americans.. and this was back in 1996. Their maximum distance for a fullycharged battery, was 60 miles. The average American drives 29 miles per day. They had a panel installed in their house where they could charge their car overnight.
There was already a lithium battery in production back than that could go further (120 miles).

Solar cells where showing slow evolution, with the highest conversion efficiency at 26-27% at the end of last year. Little over 5 months ago there has been a huge leap in solar energy potential (breaking the Yablonovitch Limit), solar energy is no longer bound by the limitations we once thought. Using organic solar cell (one that uses carbon-based materials rather than silicon crystals). Going passed 26-27% conversation efficiency... no real limit (easily going over 50% conversion efficiency... something that even a solar array can't achieve!).

Allowing solar cars the ability to drive all day long, and actually create more energy than they use (8:00am to 5:00pm). Meaning when you plug your car into a supercharger station (that will be as common as petrol stations in 4-5 years time through out North America) will put energy back into the energy grid. Putting less pressure on fossil fuel & coal power stations. Nuclear power stations will replace them overtime anyways.. point is, petrol in cars is pretty much obsolete.

There is nothing stopping this new the technology now that it has been passed around the scientific community. It's kind of ironic really. The reason why solar and wind energy exists to this day is because oil companies never saw it as a threat.. and now its better than oil in the only way that matters.

Electric cars have shown huge jump since 1996.
Graphine capacitor has 1000+ mile range, 2 min charge time (rather than overnight).
Lithium battery has 300 mile range. It goes 0-60 in 4-5 seconds depending on which model you buy. It won't drive as a fast as a oil car (120 mph of electric compared to the 300+ mph of oil). But that doesn't matter, because you only drive that fast in champion racing/drag racing.

 

[Bruce]

I would be in, but I am writing from South Africa which won't be getting the Xbone anyway...

 

[Resetti's_Replicas]

This will be quite difficult, seeing as I use Microsoft Office at my job. Besides, you should save the boycott for a company that does something truly offensive, not just making bad products.

 

[Gothproxy]

I wish I could boycott Microsoft, but since my computers run on Windows 7, that's kinda hard. Now, when it comes to new purchases, I will agree that I won't be buying anything from Microsoft for quite a while, simply because of their piss-poor attitude towards their customers. I won't be buying an Xbone, of course, none of the games or controllers or other things associated with it as well. I actually traded in my 360 and games to get a PS3 and The Last of Us (but that really had nothing to do with Microsoft themselves, but instead, more to do with I needed The Last of Us, badly).

I enjoyed the 360, but it may be a long while before I pick up another one, and that's if I decide to at all if MS continues down this road of craptacular public relations.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

This "boycott" is pointless. Unless Microsoft reveals something extraordinary people who are against it (or live outside the 21 supported countries) won't buy it and those who don't care will. No one will likely change their minds at the moment.

 

[rob_simple]

You lost me at M$. No matter how valid your argument may be, as soon as I see that 'M$' bullshit I immediately stop taking you seriously. The dollar sign might have been clever in, like, 1997, maybe, but now it makes you look like an eye-rolling teenager, muttering 'yeah, what-ever' to anything they're told.

That aside, why do we need a boycott? It seems like Microsoft are doing a brilliant job of alienating their consumer-base as it is.

My only worry is the people who don't follow events like E3 or sites like the Escapist, who'll just assume the Xbone is a hardware upgrade to the 360 and have no knowledge of all the shit they're trying to pull with it. A boycott wouldn't change their mind, because they'll just dismiss you as a crazy fringe group like anyone else with an 'end is nigh' sandwich board.

 

[jpoon]

/signed

Definitely WON'T be buying an xbone.

 

[Olas]

I think boycotting everything Microsoft does would send a mixed message if my only real issue is with the XBone, not that their OS line doesn't have it's own problems right now.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

I'm cool with microsoft. They provide one bitchin' line of operating systems that work with pretty much all computer configurations and is home to almost all the applications and plays most games. Don't see why I should give up that in favor spending a bazillion dollars on a mac (because OSX is too glorious to function properly on anything else) or some Linux distro that does almost as much as Windows just in a more complicated fashion just because I don't really want to buy the Xbox one. Can't I simply be allowed to like some microsoft products and not favor others? Talk to me again when microsoft starts molesting little boys in China. Don't see why this here internet has to boycott everything it dislikes. Or make such a big deal about everything. You won't buy the new xbox because of you think it isn't user friendly enough. Fine. No need to make a federal case about it.

 

[faefrost]

Why bother with a "boycot"? This is market forces 101. When a company is this stupid, or chooses to release products that the consumer has no demand for or an open hostility to, the problem will resolve itself naturally. No need for calls to boycott. Simply if you don't like it, don't buy it.

 

[pyrosaw]

The effectiveness of this boycott is questionable at best, but I support it. I will not buy an Xbone. I can gurantee you this.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

lol at boycotting again. So funny. Look, if you dont want an xbone, dont buy it. If you want one, then buy it. Quite simple, stop getting so over dramatic.

 

[uchytjes]

Yes, boycot Microsoft. Go PC gaming, where you will game on a... Microsoft machine.

This. You can boycot the Xbone all you want, but MS will still have quite the grip on the OS market.

 

[00slash00]

If you have internet, why would you boycott the xbox, it works just like steam and it is close to a PC.

Because it's taking away our rights and telling us that games aren't meant to be owned, you're just renting them while your system of choice has a built in death clock, waiting for the servers to be abandoned, turning it into a nice, heavy, paperweight. You boycott it to stop them from being able to push their BS ideas onto people.

so should we be boycotting steam as well? every steam game you buy is merely rented and in the very unlikely case that steam shuts down or they decide to terminate your account, your steam game library is gone. im not saying ill be buying an xbox one, but as a pc gamer, nothing microsoft is doing seems that different from what ive been experiencing on the pc for years

 

[Jadak]

I likely won't be getting the system, but not because of any boycott nor any of the issues causing bad press for MS. Just hasn't been any games that I really give a shit about yet, not do I have a large disposable income these days.

If either of those points change in some manner, I will certainly consider getting one, as it's 'flaws' really make no difference to me. But, the same points apply to the PS4, so we'll see which gets games I must have first.

 

[Keith K]

I don't have to boycott Microsoft. I don't want their product. In fact, with the advent of Win8, I no longer want any of their products.