Microsoft...
Listen Microsoft, Adobe, etc.: Some people just want to purchase a piece of software and use it until it is obsolete or they get sick of it, whether it is an operating system, a piece of Office software, etc. Not everyone wants to or needs to be in constant contact with the mothership, subscribe to something for life just to use it, or be marketed to and thus exchange their freedom to use a device, no matter that it is supposedly "free."
I am grateful to Microsoft for the innovation they have given the world in past years, and I am gainfully employed supporting MS Operating Systems and other products, but when my day is done, I boot up Linux and enjoy it in very much the same way that a weary traveller sick of airports and crowds of bleating sheep comes home and locks his/her doors, stretches out on the couch, and cracks open an adult beverage of whatever suits their predilection. No marketing, no idiocy, no ridiculous attempts to either protect me from myself or try to think for me. (as MS always gets it wrong when they try) No one is telling me "my computer could run faster" (it's already plenty fast without the bloat, thanks), forcing their partners' offerings down my throat, capturing demographic information, and when I launch a web browser or application for example, it comes up nearly instantly, not after a 5-10 second delay and without "Suggested Sites" appearing on my bookmarks bar even after I opted out of it, or some cutesy "First things first" message. And without running a service in the background to make sure I haven't suddenly decided to pirate it in the last half hour.
Oh, and a note about software updates: I click the icon on my freeware (as in speech and beer) Linux OS and it shows me exactly what it's going to do, then does it quickly, without closing any apps, and without any reboot unless it's a kernel update. I try the same on Windows and it laboriously downloads updates, apparently from the slowest server in existence, takes forever to install them, then after a reboot and "Preparing to configure Windows" (I guess preparation is everything), it may actually be usable in another 10-100 minutes, assuming it doesn't decide to do "reverting changes" for a long time, then try again...and again... and again... "Something went wrong." Ugh.
What I really fear is that the world at large is going to be brainwashed into thinking there is no better way than the MS way of waiting forever and being marketed to, and their complacence will leave us all stranded in the mud rut that is Microsoft in 2015.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
