Microsoft's New Home Page Shuns Firefox

Yeah. You spend 10 minutes trying to find IE6 for some old box and get the distinct impression that they simply don't care about you (the user) unless you're running XP with the latest greatest updates and such.

I might spend 10 minutes, hours, days or months working around some lame-brain tie-in to MS, but I wouldn't spend 10 ms looking for a download of MS garbage.

> get the distinct impression that they simply don't care about you (the user) unless you're running XP with the latest greatest updates and such.

Impression? They've flat out stated so several times. And their recent dropping of support for 98SE and ME pretty much confirms the point.

If you're talking about http://www.microsoft.com then it works just fine for me (firefox running on SuSE 10.1).

Or are we talking about a different home page?

No, a different homepage Sal. The site you mentioned is being 'renewed', and the preview of that site is inaccesible, even with FF on WinXP SP 2 (just tested).

Have they forgot more than 10% of their _own_ customers run Firefox? Or is this an attempt to make the goodies only available to 'loyal' customers? Probably neither, they're just lame as usual.

Hmm. The link on the Information Week page now seems to resolve to http://www.microsoft.com. If I manually type preview.microsoft.com it does the same.

That said, even if it is now fixed, it's typical Micro-blunder-soft behaviour.

"Firewhat? Firefox? Never heard of it. Everything should, as far as posible, seem to indicate that perfect functionality is only possible using MS's own products. To use anything else is to invite problems or lose functionality".

>but I wouldn't spend 10 ms looking for a download of MS garbage.

Aw, c'mon grouch, tell us how you really feel about MS' software!

Well, ya gotta give them one thing - they keep techs like me employed. :)

I think that's the biggest reason people refuse to switch.

I just wish all those individuals doing free tech support for MS products would stop it.

MS spends boatloads of money claiming to be the best and boatloads of money trying to prevent people from really fixing the problems. I do not understand why millions of people give so much of their time to support a vicious entity that deliberately creates a lot of the problems these well-intentioned individuals work on for less informed folks.

Yeah. You spend 2 hours (or more) fixing some poor soul's winders box to get rid of all the spyware/adware/virii/etc, and 2 months later you get to do it again.

The amazing thing is, they seem more than happy to pay you to do the cleanup every couple months. You'd think they'd realize there must be a better way.

But then, people are so conditioned to just accept whatever MS gives them/does to them, that they just accept it and go on shelling out cash every few months.

Man, what would I do if I didn't have to spend time fixing windows for people? I might actually have time to learn about more advanced networking/*nix/etc. topics!

Oh well.

I just wish I could get my dad and sister off of winders.....

Have they forgot more than 10% of their _own_ customers run Firefox?....."

In a memo to Microsoft employees (one which I am still trying to get my hands on), MS employees were forbidden to use Firefox on any machine within the Redmond Campus or any facility owned by MS. I have a family member who is married to a mid-manager who is peripherally involved in the ie7 project. They are more than despondent that Firefox kicks the snot out of their best efforts so far and always will. The Firefox and FOSS community will always provide a superior product to IE and they know it.

My "MS buddy-by-marriage" uses Firefox at home and on my nephews computers exclusively. What does that tell you about the IE vs Firefox saga?

just wish I could get my dad and sister off of winders....."

I know it's tough to do, but I layed down the law to my family and friends about a year ago...helios does not do windoze. Not even my wife's. Fortunately, she has come around recently and now runs a pclinuxos/elive box.

It may chap thier butts some, but once you 'splain that you are not going to waste your time doing the same thing every 3-6 months or so, they begin to understand, As well, they are WAY more careful of what they download and install. The registry will still crater eventually, but then you don't have to fix it anymore.

That's what I said to my parents too. They needed a new PC and wanted me to build one. I put it really simple.

- Want Windows? Fine. Thats EUR 149. I'll install it but I will NOT help you out afterwards. - Want to try Linux? It's free, has no virusses, and if you are in trouble I can even help you from my home or from work (I installed FreeNX).

They went with Linux :-) All was well for a few weeks. Then my mom complained that there was no hearts game. I fixed that (http://www.gnome-hearts.org). Three weeks later my dad came to me. He had been given a CD at his office with some software on it. Just some nutered 30-day trial thingy. Wine wouldn't run it. "But I want it!". Fine, that'll be EUR 149, I won't help you out anymore and you explain to mom why she can't play my game anymore.

He folded :-)

Edit: Good to see you back online, but I do hope you take it easy a bit.

Welcome back helios!

Yeah, welcome back helios! Is Washington in ruins yet?

Helios:

Glad to see you're still with us. Hope you're doing well.

Helios, Helios, He's our man... sent Bill Gates to Foundation Land.

First they laughed and then they ran... Helios, Helios, He's our man.

> Is Washington in ruins yet?

I think it colapsed a few minutes after he left... or was that a few minutes before?

Anyway, welcome back :)

Actually, I think Washington was ruined before he got there.