05-02-2007, 04:29 AM
Novice PC users often have this sentiment. Experienced PC users know that MS creates incompatibilities between different MS products just the same as it does for Macs. The only real chance you have at getting MS products to work well with others is to have all the same version of their products, or have done a ton of footwork to find the products that will work together.
Four years from now he'll either be replacing nearly ever piece of software, find himself stuck with what he has, or discovering the interoperability nightmare that is MS version incompatibility.
MS also locks people in with jargon. They create language barriers so when you ask for something like the IP address, they don't know that in MS jargon you mean "Windows Super Duper Connection Method Plus." You didn't ask for WSDCMP, and it sounds nothing like IP address.
I did a usability test at MS. In the product I was testing, I was to create a database and then pull data from it. I got stuck halfway through and the guy watching me finally intervened (something they never do) and told me the feature I needed to use was "web stacks." They had created their own jargon term to replace "database."
They scrapped that, but now they have a new use for that same term.
Four years from now he'll either be replacing nearly ever piece of software, find himself stuck with what he has, or discovering the interoperability nightmare that is MS version incompatibility.
MS also locks people in with jargon. They create language barriers so when you ask for something like the IP address, they don't know that in MS jargon you mean "Windows Super Duper Connection Method Plus." You didn't ask for WSDCMP, and it sounds nothing like IP address.
I did a usability test at MS. In the product I was testing, I was to create a database and then pull data from it. I got stuck halfway through and the guy watching me finally intervened (something they never do) and told me the feature I needed to use was "web stacks." They had created their own jargon term to replace "database."
They scrapped that, but now they have a new use for that same term.