Poll: Do you like Microsoft?

[Auron]

They killed Emsemble studios and Age of Empires and live windows was so bad that gamers boycotted it, gotta tell you something. I do use their OS though but that's mostly because of DirectX's dominance.

Windows 8 is also a complete travesty, not to mention the fact it's moving towards a closed system, one of the many reasons I always hated apple with all my heart.

Don't really hate on them though I believe it can still make the right choices in the near future.

PS - yes, I realize my motives have nothing at all to do with consoles.

 

[TheLycanKing144]

No I don't like Microsoft as far as gaming goes. I liked the original Xbox, I also liked the 360 too as I had some good times on it (though I do prefer PS3), but overall I don't really care about them. I don't hate them, I'm fine with people enjoying their products, but between the three, I feel MS to be the one that I could honestly do without.

It's mainly due to their exclusives though, the only one they have that I really like is Gears and Witcher 2 (but that's on PC as well). I'm not really much of a Halo fan, and I don't like Fable. I guess the system isn't really suited to my tastes. I also feel that they are the most greedy in the industry, with things like charging for Xbox Live, then later raising it's price etc...it's this greed that will probably hurt them in the near future.

Honestly the rumors that the system will be online only did not surprise me at all. It seemed like something MS would try to do. Though that being said they did contribute to the industry in two key ways:

1-Bringing a good online infastructure to consoles. Today PSN and even the Wii-U have good online systems but that's because of XBL forcing them to improve.

2-Opening the market up for PC devs to bring their games to consoles and allowing them to become more mainstream.

Also they got Halo which revolutionized shooters back in the day.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Yes, I do like Microsoft, even if I don't agree with some of their business practices.

They created an operating system that to me is superior to every other I've tried out there (Debian, Ubuntu, OSX), with Windows 7 being the best of the bunch (Vista 64 being a close second - the latest version of course, not that pos they released at first!).

They partake in DreamSpark programme, which provided me with, free of charge on my part, such software as:
- Windows 7 64-bit Professional
- Visual Studio Premium
- MS SQL Server
- MS SQL Server Management Studio.
(not to mention MSDN documentation which is just great)

They catch a lot of flak, but if I am to be honest, I don't really have any problems with them nor with their software. Everything I got from them works fine and is superior to competition's products (for example their Office is so much better than that OpenOffice pos I am forced to use now).

I am not swayed in any way by XBOX/360/720, because I do not use such hardware, although if the rumours were true, and in fact there was to be the so called 'feature', always-online, it would make me think less of them as a company.

Of course, there is also the 'bad' side, such as Games for Windows Live(had to use it only once though), or forcing XBox360 controller(on PCs, I mean) and DirectX down our guts(as in, actively discouraging from supporting the OpenGL), but, oh well. Everything has its ups and downs, and for _me_, good outweighs the bad.

inb4 M$drone

I'm a bit mixed. I did notice most people here are only basing their opinion off the Xbox (with the exception of the quote above). I don't care at all for the Xbox/360 (I've literally turned my 360 on maybe three times in the year or so I've had it) since pretty much every game on there I'd get is either on PC/PS3. I only bought it because it was a tax write off.

I do agree with Ziame that Visual Studio and SSMS are great (which I work with for a living being a C# software developer), however I don't like MSDN documentation at all. I've never found it helpful and mostly use Stack Overflow. Visual Studio (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012) has always been easy to use and C# is rather clean and handles a lot of things (like garbage collection) for you. On the other hand, there are some pieces of software I dislike. Office was rather horrible once they added the ribbon and made everything "only three mouse clicks away" (was either 2003 or 2007, can't remember which). I couldn't find the "file" menu for a week and used only keyboard shortcuts. Not a huge fan of either Vista or Windows 8, either. GFWL has been hit or miss, too. It was either just there, or it gave me a ton of issues.

 

[Mr. Omega]

(Considering the other two threads were about the game companies, this post is solely referring to MS as a console maker.)

All I can say about Microsoft's performance this gen is "What the hell happened?"

At the start they had everything: The end of the Halo trilogy as a surefire blockbuster, a new exclusive in Gears of War, the full backing of Rareware, and XBL was the standard for gamer's online services, with a promising future for indies with XBLA with games like Braid and Castle Crashers.

Fast forward a couple years, we've got Halo 4 with 5 and 6 on the way, Gears is pretty much the only exclusive they have left, Rare is a shell of its former self, we're getting horror stories of indie devs dealing with XBL every other month, and Microsoft is more interested in making XBL into a "multimedia center" with every update, complete with advertisements.

What's more, unlike the other two, Microsoft doesn't seem to be showing any signs of trying to fix this. I don't blame them, this is making them money. But unless they show a complete 180 on their current direction when they announce the NextBox, I'll be skipping Microsoft's next console.

 

[xPrometheusx]

I was going to go with the in between and just not vote (a sort of 'meh'), but then I looked at the competition. For one thing, I just shelled out 120 bucks for 2 new games recently and microsoft had the balls to tell me I needed to pay 30 more to play Borderlands 2 with my friends. For another, the optical lense is failing for the second time in a 6 months on my 360, after I paid almost 100 bucks to get it repaired the first. Then there's the fact that, in hindsight, I could've put all the money I've spent on the xbox in general in the past year and a half into a better gaming computer and been richly rewarded for it. So... meh, not really. Don't despise them, but I wouldn't defend them in an argument, lol.

 

[CriticalMiss]

As a gaming company, no way. The Xbox was pretty cool, built in harddrive, custom soundtracks on games and built in online capability. But the 360 was plagued with the red ring of death, the shitty dashboard 'updates' and more things that aren't games being advertised than games.

As a software company I think they are ok, I grew up pretty much exclusively using MS products so much so that I just couldn't stand using Macs and Linux was just madness to me. Although with the recent(ish) changes I'm a bit 'meh' about them. I have windows because that is what was preloaded on my laptop and I don't want to go through the rigmarole of swapping OSs. I use Office programmes because they came free with my laptop. Pretty much the only thing going for Microsoft is that they didn't sell me anything directly. If I had a blank PC then I'd probably end up going with open source free software instead like GIMP.

 

[TehCookie]

I use to love their computers, but I dislike the direction they're going in. I hope windows 8 goes the same path as ME and Vista, but even what they did to Microsoft office is terrible. It's like they're making computers for the illiterate, and for the past 20 years I learned how to use computers by reading what the buttons do. It's like when they hid file extensions, how are you suppose to tell what kind of file it is without it? At least that's reversible.

As for their console, it never interest me. No good games, uncomfortable controller, pay to play online, point system instead of just using real currency, no thank you.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

No, but not for their current attempts to screw over their entertainment division.

I deal with computers and hardware in general for a living and know a few people who work keeping the Uni servers from toppling over.

And the general consensus is "We only deal with Microsoft's BS because:"

1) It's relatively open nature compared to the other main competitor Mac-OS

2) Most 3rd Party programs and systems can run it.


However Microsoft decided to crap all over the first good point with Windows 8, to the extent that it wasn't even tested by ITS (even Vista was bought and tested on various machines, it was ultimately rejected but still).

And Ubuntu and the other Linux distros are being increasing supported, and now there is serious talk of the next OS upgrade being a Windows 7 to Linux jump rather than the Windows 9 or whatever they call it.

In its attempt to copy Apple, MS has removed the very features which lead it to become the most used OS with businesses.

 

[Ziame]

Mighty snip of justice

YMMV is all I can say. I for one adore 2007 Office and MSDN is fine for me, though I just started my programming journey. Still, VS is pretty amazing

 

[Tayh]

I'm generally favourably disposed towards Microsoft.
Their console(s) does not affect my judgement as they are a completely irrelevant to me as a PC gamer.
Windows XP and Windows 7 have been my most treasured gaming platforms, of which I am grateful.
I have a hotmail account, but it was quickly relegated to a Throw-Away role due to Microsoft's inability or unwillingness to design a decent spamfilter.

Generally, I appreciate MS for the compatibility of their Windows OS's, but that might be subject to change if Windows 8 is anything to go by.

 

[BrotherRool]

I voted no because Xbox live is quickly becoming the worlds least funny joke and they've really failed to push the boundaries with their exclusives in comparison to Sony and Nintendo and I'm glad because the whole Orth business, both what he said and that he lost his job over it, doesn't leave me with any positive impressions

 

[Requia]

I hate them less than I did in the pre Vista days, but I don't think I'll ever really forgive them for creating Visual Studio 6.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

As an OS manufacturer? I've no strong feelings one way or the other. I kinda like Windows 7 and if I were still on XP I'd consider buying Windows 8.

As a console manufacturer? Fuck them. There are only a small handful of worthwhile exclusives, Xbox Live is a con (and so is the price of the wireless card!) and the dashboard UI is a piece of shit (it's not just the ads; it's also ugly as sin.)

The only Xbox exclusive I'm interested in is Lost Odyssey. Halo and Gears, but I'm not a big shooter fan. The Xbox just doesn't offer enough for me to like it. The inconveniences of the console outweigh the positive feeling the tiny, tiny number of interesting games generates.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

I like Windows 7. And Bill Gates doesn't seem like an atrocious person for someone who has that much money.

As a company. Eh. I don't like $100 for an operating system with terrible DRM.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I have never liked them since windows 95 and have had bad experiences with a lot of their OP systems and hardware, their locking down of everything just pisses me off to be honest I am seriously thinking of going to linux next time I upgrade my PC although to be fair I never had many problems with XP or windows 7.

Console wise I bought the original Xbox and a 360 for exclusives but charging for online service on 360 is a joke and had a hell of a job cancelling my subscription in the end I just cancelled my card and got a new one. Personally I went through 4 Xboxs (think I had bad luck) and still have my original 360 (think I had good luck) although it did red ring on me but I was able to take it apart and fix it. I also dont know anyone who hasnt had their 360 break down and that is pretty disgusting some of my friends have gone through 4 and even 5 of the damn things.

I dont like the way they kill of competition I am not an apple fan either but I am glad that someone is challenging their monopoly at last.

As for the nextbox I am waiting for announcements but if its locked down further as they tend to like doing once they have an audience that wants their stuff then I wont be joining in and will happily go back to ignoring them.

I got windows products initially for convenience but now I am a lot more computer savvy while I got the two Xboxs because there were games I wanted to play on them but there is only so much shit I will put up with and to be honest most Xbox exclusives over the last few years have had zero interest for me so I have tended to just stick with the PS3 for multi plat games mainly because the memory on my 360 is almost all gone I dont have to pay to go online on the PS3, I am also not confident in the 360 not shitting itself and dying again at the most inconvenient moment.

 

[ellers07]

From a gaming perspective, yes. I have gotten a lot of use out of the Xbox and that has been my go to console for quite some time. Yes, I got the red ring of death many years ago but they fixed it free of charge and I've never had a problem since. I've occasionally paid for Xbox live when there was a game I wanted to play online, but generally I've done without it. I have no real complaints.

That said, the rumors surrounding the next Xbox make it rather unappealing. Should they prove true, I will pass on it. I won't hate them for it, I just won't have any interest in their new product.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

Well, seeing as I'm writing this while using their operating system I'd have to be hypocrite if I didn't like them. Of course, one doesn't have to agree with all of their decisions in order to like them.

 

[Scrustle]

I've never really "liked" them. Only ever been apathetic towards them. There have been some great games from their studios, but as an entity in and of themselves (in terms of gaming) they've never really had anything to make me excited.

But in recent times they've done a lot to gain my ire. In this console generation for example, they've always had really stupid restrictions on their hardware, meaning overpriced proprietary accessories, no wireless 3rd party controllers, and almost zero steering wheels to choose from. The ones that we were given have come under a lot of criticism too. Then there's all the shit you hear about how they treat indies and all the charges and stuff they demand. All the needless complications to the dashboard and the arrival of ads. And now we have all this crap with the Durango that sounds like a complete disaster, and makes MS look like they have utter contempt for their customers.

 

[Denamic]

Eh...
It's hit or miss with them. I don't dislike them, but I don't particularly like them either.
XP
Vista
7
8
360
720 or whatever
I don't want them destroyed, at least.

 

[braincore02]

On the other hand, they have contributed much to the world of gaming, what with their evolution of combat and whatnot.

Are you making a reference to Halo? Bungie developed Halo, and originally it was going to be a Mac game (and I'm assuming, PC as well). Microsoft had nothing to do with Halo, except to buy exclusivity rights to it, and make the series largely exclusive to the Xbox. So we can't play it on a proper FPS platform like PC. I'd say that is actually a detriment to gaming, a devolution more than anything.

MS sucks. Every now and then they make some cool things, but usually their schemes and actions are very antagonizing to the customers who support their business.