Naturally you'd say that since you appear to be some sort of "unofficial spokesperson for Microsoft". But the fact remains that since Ballmer took sole command without Gates looking over his shoulder or even making the keynote speeches anymore Microsoft has started going downhill. All free antivirus programs are worthless. They don't update the definitions for their "free" users quite as rapidly as they do for people using the pay version. This includes AVG. OneCare was excellent protection and now that it is being phased out those who (like myself) have been using it are being left with nothing. Except a bunch of backup discs that are useless because you need OneCare in order to use them.
Windows 7 has a terrible flaw that actually makes it easier for malware to attack you.
Doing away with Encarta was another bad choice as it leaves people with only the (mostly unreliable) wikipedia option for research purposes.
Bing is a terrible search engine. Users in the UK have found that most of the links it comes up with are broken.
But even here in the US I have lost track of the number of times it has failed me and I have had to resort to, say, Google, to find the information I was looking for. This almost never happened with Windows Live Search but now it's almost an everyday occurance.
Defend Ballmer all you want, my friend...but with Microsoft's track record during his regime on improvements that are not improvements in an economic climate like this one you may yet see Microsoft go under.
Cassandra,
Steve and I are both MVP Awardees, which means we have received recognition for our help in the Internet community such as this forum aiding the public in their understanding of Microsoft products. We may 'evangelize', but we also are often the most outspoken when we believe something isn't being done well too.
You appear to feel you have been personally 'burned' by several decisions made by Microsoft over the last few years, though you misunderstand the decision making processes completely. Though Steve Balmer is the 'boss' at the top of Microsoft, he makes few if any of the lower level product decisions you are lamenting. In fact, that 'software architect' position that Bill Gates used to hold is now held by someone else, though I can't recall who at the moment. In any case, some of these specific decisions probably occured at lower levels anyway, within the groups reasonsible for those product lines.
To your specific complaints in this post:
OneCare is being replaced by Morro in an attempt to provide good basic protection to a much wider group of PC users than OneCare ever did. It's not intended to reduce protection, but rather increase the number of users who have the good protection it provides. If they didn't think they could provide this, Microsoft just wouldn't bother, since it would simply waste their own money and time. They key purpose here is to protect their operating system products and users, since that's where they really make their money, which was also true of OneCare. Unfortunately for the relatively small number of OneCare users, this will mean the loss of the additional features it included.
Windows 7 is not yet a released operating system, so it may indeed have flaws. So what? Until it is released that's not a concern to anyone who helps in such testing as long as any issues are exposed and resolved before final release. I'll take Windows 7 in its current form over Windows XP any day though.
Most development effort for Bing was in the US market, other markets were left until after its release. I personally find Bing far more useable and less dangerous (malware links in the search results) than any other search facility. It's also much better organized and easier to navigate. Both your and my comments are personal opinion, so there's no 'one answer' here, which is why multiple search options exist. Use what you want, I'll be using Bing and recommending it to people I care about.
Personally I can take or leave Steve Ballmer, because he's primarily a salesman. But in the current structure at Microsoft, that's really what he's been asked to do. I don't directly blame him for any of these things, though being at the head of the operating company he has his portion of the responsibility for direction as much as anyone else.
Unfortunately, an unhappy customer will often sound like you do here. Though if you step back and read your own posts carefully, you'll probably recognize that few others except those with the same complaints will even bother to read your future posts. The best you can do is make your specific complaints about products in the community forums or newsgroups relating to those products and either learn what options others are finding or make your specific points about what you don't like, but without personal attacks that cause others to tune you out.
OneCareBear
Windows OneCare Forum Moderator
