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Hi all. I've decided to try and make some future Microsoft product "my idea", so I've submitted the following letter to them via billg [at] microsoft [dit] com. I just wanted to know if you guys had any input.
Flaming is sure to happen, and while I won't argue with you, I will probably wish your firstborn child is used as a shot put.
Dear Microsoft,
Lately I’ve been bombarded with commercial after commercial showing random people (and their self perceptions) stating that Windows 7 was their idea for one reason or another. I’m not completely disgusted by these or anything, but it started my mind on one of those winding roads a character in a story might have to take to get home, or to the girl, or to the climax, or… well I guess that is kind of repetitious – but the point is, I started thinking about the variety of Microsoft’s operating systems and the history they’ve had – rather, our history together.
I’ve used just about everything Microsoft has created… I started my computer “education” by soldering a few broken parts back together on a Commodore 64 I found in a dump, and then learning BASIC on it (the BASIC on the Commodore 64 was a variant created and licensed by Microsoft). Right now, I’m typing this in Microsoft Word, on a laptop that has Microsoft Windows Vista, being distracted by a cellular phone that runs Microsoft Windows Phone 6.5.
That was a mouthful when I read it aloud.
But the reason for this letter is not so much a history lesson, but a worry of what is to come. It seems the goal over there the past few years is some cross between being different and being more like Macintosh, or Google, or insert company name here, and I’m here to state that I don’t like the transformation the publicists and tech news sites are ranting and raving about.
A few examples?
- Most recently must be the attempt to remove the clipboard features from my phone. I say “attempt”, because I am willing to bet that will be brought back, either by you or some developers out there.
- Office 2007’s menu structure looks like someone tried to “make it better” and ruined it.
- Windows Vista and Windows 7 both look like some kind of cross-dressing Microsoft product who was “supposed to be a Mac”.
What happens when you become so close to the competition that nobody can tell you apart? Developers and IT teams may not like parts of Windows, but they are able adjust most of what they don’t like to work for them. If this path continues, and all of the contenders out there do the exact same thing, you’re really shooting yourselves in the collective foot by taking away your uniqueness.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is “different” does not equal “better”. Get back to your roots and make something that your current audience will buy. Put them above the “new customers” you’re trying to reach. It’s the same error that many companies make nowadays – neglecting the long time customers for some new ones. You end up losing great customers that way.
See, I am a man. There’s an expression stating that men marry women expecting them to be the same, and women marry men expecting that they’ll change. I feel like Microsoft is giving in to the women out there – the ones who complain about it being too hard to use or not pretty enough – and we have enough of that already. I’m not trying to hate on women out there, but maybe the movie Team America explained it best… something about assholes, dicks, and ******* (I won’t go into it, but watch the movie if you need an explanation). What we need is for Microsoft to be a **** again.
Good luck and happy creating,
(Name Removed)
P.S. This email was sent using Microsoft Outlook.
Thanks in advance for any feedback,
Drunk
oooh nice
so did they reply back and what did the email say?
anyway nice letter
no replies yet, but I just sent it last night.
Mad props for Team America reference =P
the whole my idea is just a commercial not a real deal imho
http://gizmodo.com/5477384/windows-7-was-my-idea-but-to-be-fair-i-dont-know-what-im-talking-about
I don't doubt that it is just a big marketing gimick, but I wanted to explain that it looks like they are listening to people's ideas - just the wrong ones.
I'm waiting for them to show the ads on TV which make the claim that W7 has fewer clicks so I can report it to the ASA.
Starting a program like solitaire with the mouse is either the same number (if you don't mind a 2 second wait) or one more click than XP/Vista.
As for getting to the network card properties that's a heck of a lot more clicks than Vista or XP.
W7 has some very well thought out features, but unfortunately it's got more that just aren't.
I hate MS for putting me in a position where I have to say I prefer Vista! Damn them! Damn them to Hades!
WM7 looks awful, and the restrictions they're putting on it make no user or business sense.
Office 2007 is appauling, what were they thinking? Why make an application which users have to refer to google in order to complete simple common tasks?
Don't expect a reply, Drunk, at least something that isn't just generically polite and thanking you for your thoughtful input.
You blended good points that resonate with much of their shrinking user base, made up partly by people who have no idea they're running Microsoft and also in part by people who are obsessed with modifying them, with that bit on genitals. They're not interested in us anymore, nor would they want to add a lot of attention to your letter by giving you something from them to paste on and spread around. They want to intercept people from buying the other phones with no regard to who's already buying their own phones, and you can't really blame them considering how fast they're still falling (down 4% last quarter) toward obscurity.
Just to offer myself as an example of others reading what you just posted and what may be on their own minds, considering I made two websites about the damn thing, I'd say I was a bonafide WinMo fanatic, one of the last expected to say adios, but I just did, a Nexus One, and not only will I continue to love and go nuts with it I will attempt to take others with me. It's brewing right here on XDA, the place you'd think would be the haven mainly for people who like to do what can mostly only be done exclusively with WinMo phones.
Actually I read this by mistake, forgot to get rid of all my WinMo rss feeds on Google Reader to which my phone's synced. Good read though, glad you posted it. So thanks.
But no matter how much rabble you rouse here nor what signs you wave in front of their Seattle office you won't stop this train, the general direction of which they've made it clear that they are taking with WP7 being mostly the opposite of what a lot of us want. They can't please everyone and they'd rather please would-otherwise-be customers of their competitors even at the expense of estranging themselves from part of their existing customers. On the bright side, in addition to there being other options (specifically the one I took), they claim they'll keep supporting existing versions of WinMo for at least a while, though not forever on new devices I don't think which will have unique hardware that if I heard correctly won't even have removable storage, not to mention any support for decentralized application distribution. You don't like the sound of what's coming but what's coming is in their opinion good for business and I suppose mine too. When you're already failing at this rate in such a critical time of penetrating a huge market with enormous potential that will be realized further and further every day, it's hard to come up with a dumb idea on how to do things differently. Not to mention I've seen quite a few extremists shrug off each new bit of bad news saying Whatever I'll still try it, and once they do, then Microsoft has got them for at least a long enough period of time to figure out how to keep them hooked while they intercept little bits of business from the others. Right now they're handing business away. It's a joke.
Making sure the likes of you and others on sites like XDA remain happy customers as they implement these drastic changes to their mobile operations is not high up on their to do list.
Just sayin'.
Doug
Can't say I don't agree with you on most of that. I honestly don't expect much of a reply... at most a blanket letter or something like that. I've also been working my way to other vendors. I've got some android variant on my TP2 now and Ubuntu on my laptop (both still dual boots, but it's a step that direction). I just didn't want it all to happen without my 2 cents' worth being thrown at them.
Thanks for stopping by.
I hear you man, I'm all about ranting. This and this in particular. Also this.
Take a look at that and mobilitydigest.com (basically the same with a less weird domain), you'd make a great writer. Perfect style, perfect background (impressive by the way), perfect fire in your belly. We can't yet offer you money but what we can give you is an audience. Let me know.
"but I wanted to explain that it looks like they are listening to people's ideas - just the wrong ones."
yeah with the whole win phone 7 seeming like being a copy of the features of org iphone sure sounds like they are getting bad advice
Hello, my name is Benjamin, currently a undergraduate student that has gotten very interested in electronics the past couple of months. 21 years of age.
I don't have excessive amounts of money to buy nice toys with or to experiment with, but I was hoping that I could gather wealth and buy an unlocked smart-phone, cheap.
I don't have extensive experience, but I really want to learn from this awesome community. I have been skimming threads and reading, researching and, finally I decided to stop lurking and come out in the clear and introduce myself. I admire the hard work of the seniors, veterans, juniors, semi-pros and other awesome people that think around problems on this board. Thank you already.
I have started hobby-programing python and perl, I have an unreasonable fear of Java, but will hopefully be able to start playing with it if I eventually do get that smart-phone.
So my problem right now is that I don't have a fun little device to play with, could anyone recommend a device that is:
Not crazy expensive
Will be able to connect to Wi-fi network
Will be able to run GV to be used as a VOIP phone
Unlocked and ready to be changed
Easy to access and play around with
Simply, I don't necessarily need it to keep a constant connectivity, just a small computer to toy with.
There are many approaches to the smart-phone idea right now, and your board has been very helpful, I just need a last nudge.
Sorry for the lengthy post, just wanted to introduce myself, and not be lurking anymore. I will try to keep annoying questions to a minimum.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
<3
cheap smartphone(thats actually worth somthing) translates to hd2 on xda ... they go from $200-220 on ebay , good cond . anything lesser of a price ull only get 600mhz , non-cortex phones(garbage) it has wp7 android ubuntu one day maybe meego for it
Hello everyone,
my name is Henri and I want you to gift me five thousand three hundred and eighty-nine dollars.
5437$ or about 4800€. (Rates May 13,2015 GMT)
If you have not clicked away yet, let me explain:
I live in Berlin, Germany and I am 21 years old.
When I was about 16 years old I was moderate to severe depressed. Thought about killing myself, cried myself to sleep et cetera. I don't want to go into detail with this, because you have all heard those heartbreaking stories before.
Anyway, I got over it. I did not go into therapy. Instead I decided to fix the problems which depressed me. Those were mostly that I did not have a social life at all and had a good amount of social anxiety.
I wasn't able to ask an elderly woman for the time on the streets, started sweating when people I didn't know talked to me in school and so on.
And obviously, I didn't have any female contact besides my mother and sister.
In 2011 I had a breakdown and decided that I had to change or I would eventually kill myself in a weaker moment.
I went out to fix my social life and become happy. And I succeeded.
Long story short: I pushed myself into social interactions, pushed myself to talk to girls. On this journey I found awesome friends, two especially which could not be closer to me. One of them had the same goals as I, wanted to overcome all social borders there are.
I also met a lot of great girls, eventually other guys asked me for advice.
I was the happiest person I knew.
This is when I and and the friend mentioned above decided that we could actually teach other guys to get to where we are.
We are currently building a German website where we want to give advice for young guys on talking to girls, fitness, having great sex, fashion, hygiene, motivation, discipline, managing happy relationships and ironically living a happy life.
Ironically, because right now I am depressed as f**k again. This is because I don't have money, my parents don't have enough to support me. I got a job, but I literally started crying there because I felt so miserable. At home I feel miserable because I have no money. I am working in sales without base salary.
My expenses are about 600€ a month. In Germany, parents get some money for their „childs“ as long as they study, so I get close to 200€ a month from them. 400€ left.
My options right now are :
1) „Manning up“ and work and hope that therapy fixes this.
2) Getting student loans and go to university in a field with which I will be able to pay back the roughly 20.000€ in loans, just so that I do not have to work right now and can put my energy into the website.
3) Moving back into my parent's place on the other side of the country and everything on hold. They live in small village, so I won't be able to meet and advice people, talk to girls, network etc.
I would give up everything I built here.
Yesterday I decided to give another idea a shot. The idea you are reading right now.
I figured if I could get 4800 people to give me 1€ each, I could live one year without stress.
12 months times 400€ is 4800€.
I am convinced that my website and other projects will make enough money for me after this year.
If not, and this is a very small if, I will be where I am right now again, hopefully with more valuable lessons learned, happy and therefore able to work a normal job if I have to.
You see, I am basically asking you for time. I realize that 1$/1€ isn't much, but if you gave it to everyone you'd be dead broke. I do not know how I can convince you that I deserve this money more than anyone else, but I know that all I need right now is this money to handle this situation and put all my energy into the website and hopefully helping others.
I am asking you to gift me your next coffee, ice cream cone or burger.
If just 1% of the people reading this decides to help me out with one dollar, I have to show this to 543,700 people.
This is why I actually looked up the biggest online communities and I am posting this to every single one that can somehow relate to my situation or the subjects of our site. Some just seem to have cool people in them.
As you will see, there isn't any content up yet. We already have a lot but want to publish about ten good articles for the start. And yes, this is a working-title
If this post gets removed because it violated any specific rule I understand that and want you to know that it wasn't on purpose. I also tried to post into Off-Topic or similar.
If you have any questions, I will answer them as soon as I can.
Please don't give us advice on the design or that wordpress „is bad“. I appreciate it, but I want to answer questions about the content, our goals and whatnot instead of discussing webdesign. So far we have been working on content only.
The site as it stands is just a vehicle for the donate page, since sites like „fundme“ take 30cents per donation plus fees.
Again, all I am asking for is 1$ to solve all my problems for one year.
Thank you for your time.
Mod edit: Link removed
Perhaps you should be reading the forum rules before posting stuff like this, as you were clearly aware that those exist.
CoolApps said:
Perhaps you should be reading the forum rules before posting stuff like this, as you were clearly aware that those exist.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While many of us, myself included, sympathize with your issue, this site is not the place for raising funds for yourself. This is against forum rules and is simply not allowed.
Thread closed.
Hello XDA, it's been a long time since I was truly active in these or any forums because life and reality provided an unintended distraction and then the pandemic. I find myself with a bit more time where I need a necessary diversion from reality and this forum has always provided this nerd with a world-wide community of nerds who really and truly know their ****. I have social networking friends that I follow, that I met through here and other technology forums that I have been friends with now for almost twenty years. I'm sure that how we met is irrelevant to many of them since we interact more about our day to day lives then the nerding out we did here in the forums. See, as a nerd, making real world friends was always difficult, but here, at XDA with my G1000 from Hitachi, one of the first-ever smart-phone, with a keyboard and a screen running Windows Mobile. I came here looking for a way to back-up my sms and call log to Microsoft Outlook and some genius had figured out a way to do it. I then had three different HTC Windows Mobile devices and XDA let me do amazing things with them.
Then, because I got suckered in to Sprint!, I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy SII Touch or something ridiculous like that and it had so many issues out if the box but 2ss an amazing device. XDA was like High School and this is where you went from teen hacker wannabe to legit 1337 skills by rooting and then installing custom roms. The addiction to that thrill of knowing that a mistake, zigging when you're supposed to zag or skipping a step, rushing and missing something could spell disaster. I dropped a phone while installing a rom and the device boot-looped hard. Not to worry, XDA was here and someone else had done something similar, there was an entire forum thread devoted to all the people who had face-planted the rooting, rom or other process and lobotomized their Android device.
I still occasionally peruse the forums, lurking and liking and once in a while, replying. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for what seems like 17 or 18 years if amazing things. By you, I mean the people who run the forums behind the scenes at all levels and the moderators that keep the law and order necessary to thrive and function and you the users who's knowledge and other contributions are why we are here in these forums, from the creators to their guinea pigs to every other lurker like me. Thanks.
Blu3Fr0g said:
Hello XDA, it's been a long time since I was truly active in these or any forums because life and reality provided an unintended distraction and then the pandemic. I find myself with a bit more time where I need a necessary diversion from reality and this forum has always provided this nerd with a world-wide community of nerds who really and truly know their ****. I have social networking friends that I follow, that I met through here and other technology forums that I have been friends with now for almost twenty years. I'm sure that how we met is irrelevant to many of them since we interact more about our day to day lives then the nerding out we did here in the forums. See, as a nerd, making real world friends was always difficult, but here, at XDA with my G1000 from Hitachi, one of the first-ever smart-phone, with a keyboard and a screen running Windows Mobile. I came here looking for a way to back-up my sms and call log to Microsoft Outlook and some genius had figured out a way to do it. I then had three different HTC Windows Mobile devices and XDA let me do amazing things with them.
Then, because I got suckered in to Sprint!, I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy SII Touch or something ridiculous like that and it had so many issues out if the box but 2ss an amazing device. XDA was like High School and this is where you went from teen hacker wannabe to legit 1337 skills by rooting and then installing custom roms. The addiction to that thrill of knowing that a mistake, zigging when you're supposed to zag or skipping a step, rushing and missing something could spell disaster. I dropped a phone while installing a rom and the device boot-looped hard. Not to worry, XDA was here and someone else had done something similar, there was an entire forum thread devoted to all the people who had face-planted the rooting, rom or other process and lobotomized their Android device.
I still occasionally peruse the forums, lurking and liking and once in a while, replying. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for what seems like 17 or 18 years if amazing things. By you, I mean the people who run the forums behind the scenes at all levels and the moderators that keep the law and order necessary to thrive and function and you the users who's knowledge and other contributions are why we are here in these forums, from the creators to their guinea pigs to every other lurker like me. Thanks.
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Click to collapse
Glad to see an old timer around!
HTC was my fav brand for many many years....
Hope to see ya around.
Cheers!
Just recently started using this website to get to know how to root, twrp, all that good stuff for the first time and the support I have had has been amazing and the community seems really active like I litterally got a reply to my comment in under 10 mins after posting it don't even remember the last time that happened all in all happy to be here
Welcome to xda.
Good to hear you are enjoying xda.
It is a very active site and normally someone can give you an answer or help find one.
Glad to have you part of the xda family.
Cheers.
Yes it was quite the learning experience, I had to use the knowledge I had learned through the years to actually conceptualize how to deploy a defense and anoffense. DESPITE HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT NOW: I would never put anyone else hrougu that though. These days we've become, as a society, very dependent on our technologies, I'm some cases if you don't have access or knowlefhe of the most basic components, it could cost a meal, or where you lay your head at night. Let's see, I lost 4 smartphones, 2 tablets, half my hair went grey, the other half just gave up and fell out, and it cost me 2 job opportunites that will not be around in my near future. Having the knowledge of technology is great, having the wisdom, the experience in wether to deploy it, or make it what it's for are two different beast, I think people initially don't feel that there hurting anyone by using technology to get back at them, but if they put themselves in the shoes the person is about to walk in, is the punishment balancing what it will cost them in real life because of the lost communication, job, or relationship? Just because it's not a knock out drag out fight doesn't mean it won't sting
So essentially what I am saying is that it has become the right hook, body slam, forrgose that can't actually do that to someone, but there is a degree of social responsibility, that needs to be assessed. If I deploy a hijacker virus on someone because they said something I didn't like, and that person supported their family with Uber, depending on how long I kept the hijack up I might just help that dude get an eviction, no technology, no phone, no way or getting fares, etc, etc.....