Voted yes because it would be irrational for me to vote no as I use their o/s products W7 and XP. BUT I block outgoing packets for certain MS products and don't turn on updates till update day 1/month.
There is nothing to add to your reply, you understand the reasons of MS success, except you can't blame them for the ineptitude of the competition. For the record Vista is the best OS I have ever had (I have Windows XP Home editition/Pro and Ubuntu) I don't have Win 7 simply because I have too many computers, but I'm sure it is even better than Vista. People have predicted a MS decline for ages, it is not happening and believe me someone with an 80% share it is not going to go down so easily and without a fight.
I don't trust big companies period. I don't install MS software where I can use an alternative without too much hassle. Linux is too much hassle for me. Apple is too much money and I don't trust them also (bad service here in the Netherlands. That's mainly why).
I am not so sure that it is always ineptitude. The most successful products aren't always the best. Otherwise McDonald's hamburgers would be the best in the world because they serve 47 million customers a day. I ate one of their 'Breakfasts' once. I'll never do it again. It wasn't a patch off a Wimpy's 'All Day Breakfast'! I think Vista HP is OK, it hasn't given me many real problems & two service packs later I am one of the few people who actually prefer it to XP. I still think that MS should have developed it properly before releasing it to Joe Public. What was their hurry? Why use the MS using cyber-populace as crash-test dummies? We'll see what happens with the Google OS. Linux is also becoming more user friendly & freeware is a price everyone can afford. MS isn't going to disappear, not overnight anyway. But eventually they will not be so dominant. Although I think that the browser ballot screen is a bit pointless, I tend to agree with Opera ASA about the reason for this & of Opera's protests over many of Microsoft's underhand business practises. Bullying the competition does not make them inept, just victims. I can even see the EU's side of this. I have Opera 10.10 as my default browser. Even with its occasional incompatibilities it is far superior to IE 8. I don't hate Microsoft but I don't trust any big companies particularly. Microsoft have been taken to court over its business ethics before. Microsoft would like to destroy all competition to its products. This is an hegemonistic attitude & reminds me a bit of that short-arse Austrian chap & his New Order. Any company that has that kind of domination of the market is not healthy for the consumer. Benthamite utilitarianism is not the way forward for the Internet or the consumer in my opinion.
Yes, of course that I trust Microsoft. I have used their system since Windows 3.11 till Windows 7 Windows Live Mail, sometimes hotmail, WLM, etc. Too much relations, so I must trust them
I personally admire people like Steve Jobs, Linus Torvalds and of course Bill Gates. They are great men, people who had a vision and determination about something that became bigger then their own life, opening up the new digital era in the 21st century. I realize that using the term ineptitude is a bit harsh, but I was referring to marketing strategy which has nothing to do with the individual genius of these men. When you say "The most successful products aren't always the best" are you trying to tell me that Linux given the opportunity wouldn't want to be number one (same applies to Apple)? Linux has so many distros that are competing with one another, and hope that one day the majority of the average users will see the light and adopt one of them. They should try to regroup and tackle the real problem with Linux distros: to create a product like Windows that works out of the box. Apple is great, beautiful design, expensive, but they have created their own 'ghetto'(I would love to have a Mac, if I only had a good reason to buy one). Windows is trustworthy because no matter what, in any country, you'll be able to have a standardized service and expectations that will simply work. These are not small issues, and people are prepared to pay to have a trouble free computer experience. Rather than McDonald's food (which I also eschew) let's talk about Goldman & Sachs and their ilk, do you trust them?
I use Microsoft O.Ss (included MS DOS) since 1989 and I trust Microsoft enough even if I no longer use Internet Exlporer, Outlook/Outlook Express, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Defender and last but not least MSE. Even if I have to say that IE 8.0 has dramatically improved and MSE seems to be a good antivirus, I still prefer to use Firefox for surfing and other security softwares to protect my computers
Yes, let's not also forget Sir Tim Berners Lee, Robert Cailliau & of course Alan Mathison Turing OBE, FRS & Thomas (Tommy) Harold Flowers MBE (who invented the world's first programmable electronic computer). I think that there is a distinction between wanting to be 'No 1' & becoming the market leader through a combination of unscrupulous duplicity & force majeure. I think that there is definite progress being made, particularly with Ubuntu. Yeah, you wouldn't believe how expensive Macbooks are in my country! One day I would love to join the 'Mac Ghetto'. In a nutshell....yes. Does this make them necessarily trustworthy? I suppose it's a matter of perspective. The new version of 'Word' may be the best word processor on the market. Is it really worth nearly a hundred quid? I have two WPs on my computer, they work fine & were both freeware. I don't mind paying for good hardware (or software) but I am not so enthusiastic on being 'taken for a ride'. LOL! Does anyone trust Investment Bankers these days?
If I didn't trust Microsoft I wouldn't use their products. Ya they have problems and glitches but so does Toyota and I am not going to give up driving my Tundra.
You don't need to trust in Microsoft to use their products. Actually, I don't trust in Microsoft (i.e, I don't expect 100% reliability from Microsoft) but I prefer and use Microsoft's products because of the usual higher quality. This doesn't stop me from reviewing Microsoft's EULA and reading news concerning their products/business practices, like those on secunia.com or arstechnica.com/microsoft.
The last Microsoft EULA I reviewed was the Windows XP one back in 2005 , just because there was nothing to do and I decided I should read it. It was post-XP installation. What can you do if you are reading the EULA and you find something you don't like? Nothing . But you should use the product because of popularity , usability , quality , etc.
But the ambiguity that beethoven refers to ("Do I trust them as a company is different than do I trust that all of their products are perfect or free of security issues") is evidenced by all of the third party apps you and I and most everyone else here uses. There is also present in many of us an underlying sense that Microsoft isn't putting all of their cards on the table, so to speak. On the subject of erasing index.dat files, CloneRanger wrote yesterday, "I can't see MS allowing all that info to vanish, so i wouldn't be surprised if it's written elsewhere too". This resonates in many of us, I believe. So maybe the trust some of us (myself included) claim to have for Microsoft isn't a very strong trust, and in fact, maybe it is more of a resignation thing, whereby we all know that there are alternative OSs out there, but we give in and go with what is most convenient and prevalent... Microsoft Windows.
