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[News] Microsoft Drops Support and Demonstrates Why Proprietary Software Fails

  • Subject: [News] Microsoft Drops Support and Demonstrates Why Proprietary Software Fails
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:51:06 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Freelance
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Microsoft ditches support for Money

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has dropped support for Money 2005 and described it as "obsolete" - 
| even though the company claims it's still good enough for UK users. 
| 
| In our online banking feature in this month's PC Pro we described "Money as a 
| little unloved at Microsoft" after the company failed to issue a new UK 
| version in three years, despite a US release just last year.  
`----

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/178854/microsoft-ditches-support-for-money.html

Good luck to people whose finances are tied to binary blob which isn't
maintained anymore.


Related:

A Perception of Lack of Support for Open Source Should Not Stop Adoption of
Linux

,----[ Quote ]
| People seem hesitant to accept open source because “there is no company 
| behind it” like Microsoft. First of all, from an OS standpoint, support of 
| Linux distros by the companies that publish them has come a long way in the 
| past few years. Companies like Canonical (the distributor of Ubuntu Linux), 
| Novell (SuSE Linux), and Red Hat offer support programs that can assist you 
| with your problem, although these programs vary in pricing and how they are 
| conducted. The point is, however, that despite the fact that the OS is 
| developed, maintained, and improved by an amorphous body of programmers (the  
| open source community), there are real companies behind the distros that will 
| be there if you have a question or problem.        
`----

http://lawtech.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/support-linux-open-source/


Microsoft's Genuine Advantage

,----[ Snippet ]
| A lot of managers are afraid to use Open Source Software, because it
| doesn't come with any support. Of course that isn't true. It is a classical
| piece of FUD. And then again, how much is support worth?
| 
| [...]
| 
| MS:   Microsoft Support. Good morning, sir. Can I help you.
| IC:   Windows displays some strange message on my screen.
| MS:   What's the message, sir.
| IC:   ReadStringFromInf: UpdSpGetLineText failed: 0xe0000102; Microsoft
| Windows is Not Present
| MS:   May I have your product key, sir.
| IC:   [gives completely valid product key]
| MS:   Ok, sir. Can you please reboot your PC?
| IC:   Will that solve the problem?
| MS:   Please reboot your PC, sir.
| IC:   Ok, ok, wait a minute.
| MS:   Please call us again if you eXPerience any more problems. Have a
| nice day, sir. [click]
`----

http://thebeez.vnunetblogs.com/the_beez_speaks/2006/09/microsofts_genu.html


I work for MS but even I struggle to get a hot-fix

,----[ Quote ]
| The problem took 260 minutes to resolve from start to
| finish and an estimated 90 minutes of Ledgard's time,
| not including the time it took to write-up his problems...
| Still, the frustrations experienced by Ledgard give
| a salutary lesson that Microsoft's online product
| support is mediocre, at best, and will surely strike
| a chord with many long-suffering sys admins.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/24/ms_hot-fix_hell/


The top Linux support weaknesses, then and now

,----[ Quote ]
| In 2003, SearchEnterpriseLinux.com visited the Linux support landscape 
| with a list of Linux support weaknesses. A lot has happened over the 
| past four years, as is evident in the success of Red Hat and 
| Novell's subscription-based support models and the meteoric 
| rise of commercial-grade Ubuntu support, to name a few.
`----

http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1262974,00.html


Microsoft Y2K bug circa 1998?

,----[ Quote ]
| On January 8th of this week my parents received a phone call which they 
| dodged because the call was coming through at 11:00 p.m. at night. 
| 
| The next day they retrieved the voicemail message which was from Microsoft 
| technical support calling me back to see if my problem has been resolved. 
| 
| [...]
| 
| I remember in the past year or so when I called Microsoft and the problem was 
| not resolved (BSOD after Microsoft patch) that Microsoft did call me back the 
| next day to see if i made any progress in my little computer crises (which I 
| though was super cool of them... I was really impressed)...   
| but wait a second .... or wait 315,569,260 seconds ....
| Microsoft hadn't done this (call me back that is) the first time I called ... 
| and I called many years ago.... but that must have been when I was living at 
| home with my parents..... which is why they called me at my parents phone 
| number.   
`----

http://bicbickers.blogspot.com/2008/01/microsoft-y2k-bug-circa-1998.html


Top 10 reasons why Microsoft's Xbox 360 Customer Service is "teh br0ken".

,----[ Quote ]
| So there you have it Microsoft, the Top 10 reasons your support
| system is "teh br0ken", from my admittedly short experience with
| it. When I'd assumed a company of your size would set the standard
| for customer service, I didn't mean the standard by which to do
| better than...
| 
| I realize it's probably no great revelation that their customer
| service sucks, but come on, why can't they fix this? Can they
| only fix simple things? That makes them useless for people with
| "real" problems.
`----

http://www.gamercastnetwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=28315&postcount=68


Another Xbox Support Nightmare 

,----[ Quote ]
| We seem to be receiving an increasing number of horror stories from
| Xbox 360 owners who have had to call Microsoft's Bangalore-based
| tech support call center. When your reason for calling is a
| bricked console, one would think it would be a painless and
| quick procedure to get the thing replaced or repaired.
| Apparently not the case, according to Brent from Consumerist.com
`----

http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/10875/


Xbox 360s Still Dying, Customer Service Still Crap

,----[ Quote ]
| "They'll handle everything, they're great. They'll even pay for shipping
| and Fed-Ex it for you. That's what they did for my systems (yes, plural)
| when they died."
`----

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/xbox-360s-still-dying-customer-service-still-crap-222843.php


Which is better for technical support

,----[ Quote ]
| I have found in general that with open source support you often get
| more than what you pay for but with closed source support, by some of
| the biggest names in software, the support is often lacking in the
| value department. With open source asking for support has generally
| resulted in a solution within a week and I have never paid for it.
| However with closed source companies I have open tickets that have
| not been resolved in months. With open source I can communicate
| directly with the author(s) of the program and work closely with
| them to find a solution. Closed source on the other hand has just
| requested information, verified the bug and then informed us that
| the solution may be available in the next release of the program. 
`----

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/locutus/archives/which-is-better-for-technical-support-13621
http://tinyurl.com/ygspn7


A practical guide to Ubuntu Linux

,----[ Quote ]
| Putting off that New Year's resolution to get started on Linux? Here's a 
| combination of book and distribution that will lay a strong foundation for 
| Linux projects  
`----

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;539164937;fp;2;fpid;2

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