Hate Windows 8.x? Hate Windows 10? Office 2013? Here's what we can all do about it

For me the word is disappointed instead of hate.  It's true that competition makes companies listen much more closely to what customers want instead of using monopoly to leverage things, and crowdfunding is the new thing.

Azure, AWS, Google Cloud keep each-other offering better services at lower cost.  Android and iOS rely on each-other to push innovation.  If Windows 7 were back on RTM you can bet that its sales will outstrip Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 combined, but Microsoft has the power to designate Windows 7 EOL and since it's already gone to Extended support, and EOL is in less than 5 years, businesses aren't too keen on using it for new developments.  On the other hand, if Windows 10 is no better than Windows 8.1 (or worse maybe) then I do think that you will have the market producing alternatives and Microsoft stock taking a dive.

But the bottom line is that for all of us, a failing Microsoft hurts us all.  I want Microsoft to succeed in producing desktop operating systems that we need and love - but I think they're taking the wrong direction by taking the desktop market for granted and using the pain it would be to transition away from Microsoft on the desktop as leverage to push changes that are not to benefit the desktop user, but to benefit Microsoft's OTHER products and services, e.g. Bing advertising, Microsoft's Store, Windows Phone.

Instead of harming the desktop to push their other products, their other products should improve so that they are competitive on their own.  Bing isn't as good as Google's search.  Make Bing better and people will come.  Keep Bing second-rate and pushing it will not make it better.  Bing's problem isn't marketing, it's quality.  Same thing for all of Microsoft's other offerings - they're not lacking because of marketing, but only lacking where there is a competitor with higher quality.  By lowering the quality of the desktop they are creating a market opening for alternatives.

I think Microsoft are very worried about the changing face of the personal computing demographic. They perceive a threat from tablets and see that they are in danger of losing massive market share to the likes of Apple and Google. They are right to be worried IMO but the desperation in the release of Windows 8 was evident.

I thought Windows 8 was awful. I've always been an early adopter but that was the first time I actually stayed with a previous OS. Clearly they were trying to bridge the gap between the desktop PC and the tablet experience but they failed on both counts. M$ was built on the desktop PC and they rode the wave of 'casuals' buying PCs to browse the net and send emails. A tablet is a much better fit for those people and for them it is a better experience to just use an iPad or an Android tablet. The hardcore PC users who want to game and do proper work had a pointless tablet UI foisted upon them.

I want Windows 10 to work because Windows 7 is getting outdated now. I was positive with the early builds which were headed in the right direction. This latest build reminds me of how the early 8 betas were OK and progressively got worse. They need to make the UI a much more aesthetic and useable experience with 10. They need to make the OS leaner and cut out as much superfluous **** as possible, stuff like Cortana and Modern Apps. They need to make privacy an important aspect of the experience, this is a reason why people are turned off when people start talking about the cloud.

Making Windows 10 good is going to be an extremely difficult task and honestly I'm not sure M$ are up to it - maybe the best we can hope for is 'not terrible'! ;D

The right thing would be to:

1. Put Windows 7 back on mainstream support, and commit to it for 10 more years before EOL.
2. Make a genuine Microsoft ClassicShell-like start menu for Windows 8.1.
3. Delay Windows 10 until it's good.  June is widely being discussed as the RTM but that's not enough time.

To salvage Metro, if it's not too late:

1. Make deals with important app developers for promotion in the Windows store, so that banking and other software that are available on iOS and Android are also in Metro.  Provide programmers to these third parties if necessary.  Make this happen, otherwise Windows mobile users feel shortchanged everytime there's a great new iOS AND Android app and Windows mobile isn't even mentioned.
2. Eliminate the fake apps even if they pad the "numbers" for marketing.  Any genuine apps are lost in a sea of fake ones.  No developer wants this.
3. Have a free app of the day promotion for paid apps, like Amazon does.
4. Provide a free secure password manager as a part of Metro (like Passwordbox or whatever).
5. Provide a pushbullet-like functionality in Metro, and enable it on Windows XP/Vista/7 as well.

the System Administrator who is sick and tired of working out the difference between a local AD account, an Organizational account, and Microsoft Account, and so on.

Wait what? If you don't know the differences between these things, what the heck are you doing in a sysadmin position? There's no such thing as a local AD account either.

Are you just making up complaints?

the System Administrator who is sick and tired of working out the difference between a local AD account, an Organizational account, and Microsoft Account, and so on.

Wait what? If you don't know the differences between these things, what the heck are you doing in a sysadmin position? There's no such thing as a local AD account either.

Are you just making up complaints?

Are you serious?

How many times have you gotten a call "My OneDrive isn't syncing" only to find out that a user had used his organizational account on one PC and a consumer Microsoft Account on another PC?  Or a user activating office ClickToRun products (which are a PITA as well) with a consumer account and cant figure out how to access it anymore?

Besides, my point isn't to list complaints.  The internet is full of them already.  I'm making a point that with group community effort, we can break away from M$.

And please use your brain... In the context of Azure AD, local AD means on-prem.

So, doing your job is now tiring. Okay, I get it. You just want to be lazy.

I'm not even going to bother responding.  I guess the Microsoft MVP title enhances your ability to spew nonsense, which conveniently fits the theme of this thread :-P

No, you're just woefully misinformed.

I wholeheartedly agree with donating to projects you think are worthwhile in an age where entitle spoiled brats think developers should be giving away their work for free, but that first paragraph of examples was cringe inducing.

So, doing your job is now tiring. Okay, I get it. You just want to be lazy.

I'm not even going to bother responding.  I guess the Microsoft MVP title enhances your ability to spew nonsense, which conveniently fits the theme of this thread :-P

Actually programmers are stressed and over worked, there is a shortage of good programmers. If you have what it takes, give the source code, you would like Microsoft to fix. You just don't have a clue how stressful it is to write and debug lines of code.