BBC Article

[Pino]

"The biggest problem with Microsoft is badly-written software - the operating system allows you to write software badly unlike Mac or Linux."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport....html?s_sync=1

Discuss....

[NeedSomeAnswers]

the operating system allows you to write software badly unlike Mac or Linux.

I would have thought a combination of the language used, coding standards and the ability of the coder would allow you to write software well or badly.

There maybe issues with how Windows manages these programs but what the hell has windows got to do with whether you write good or bad software ?

That statement seems to me to be somewhat ill informed !

[Shaggy Hiker]

The whole concept is doomed to be a niche market, regardless of that foolish comment. People need to remember one rule:

Games drive computers!

Starting probably with the 386, and continuing up until the second generation of Pentiums, every new processor was touted as being "only needed for high end servers and certain special tasks." That was pure crap, of course, because the early adopters were geeks, and the power was used for increasingly sophisticated games.

Windows 95 had to come out with special tools (WinG, which was supplanted by DirectX) because MS recognized that no OS would become fully established unless it supported sufficient graphical access to allow for the real time 3D games that were pouring onto the market. People simply wouldn't adopt Windows 95 if they couldn't play Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and other such games.

Eventually, the manufacturers began to get smart. The first indication of this that I saw was the Pentium MMX where a chip was released that included specific instructions to assist in graphics rendering. They sure weren't doing that for artists, either. The point was games and nothing less.

Now we see yet another attempt to sell a web-only portal. I seem to remember that somebody did that a few years back. There is a selection of people who just want to be able to surf the web and nothing else, but for the vast majority, if it won't play games, then it is a pretty limitted tool. Of course, there are increasing numbers of web games out there, and Linux isn't an absolute impediment to PC games, but if they don't have an easy way to install and play games, they will sputter along as a niche market until they run out of steam and fade into history...for a couple years, before yet another group attempts this "brilliant new concept". Heck, this could turn out like tablet PCs. Another brialliant idea that keeps popping up every two or three years as if nobody had ever heard of it before.

[si_the_geek]

There is an element of truth to the quote, but it is mainly marketing exaggerations.

In the past there have been loopholes in Windows that allowed bad programming (such as being able to edit files in Program Files if your program was running with Admin/Power rights, which was the default), but the vast majority of them were plugged when Vista came out (or Win2000 if you were willing to think about security, and not always log in as admin).

The biggest reason for the quantity of bad software is market share... because Windows is so dominant, that is what the majority of programmers (especially newer ones) write code for. Unless you have been given a specific product recommendation (or are willing to spend lots of time searching/testing), it can be hard to find a good one among the masses. There is lots of very good software out there (such as the free IcoFx for editing icons), and I doubt that the Linux equivalents are any better.

As Linux tends to be something that people move on to (rather than start with), the users who are new to it generally have a far better idea of what they are doing than people who are new to Windows... and the same applies to programmers who use it. That certainly doesn't mean that they have the best programmers, just that the worst ones they've got tend to be a bit better than the worst Windows ones.

[Nightwalker83]

Well, I have to agree with NSA it is about the ability of the coder and what he is able to achieve with the soft he is using.

On a different note I find this interesting from the same article:

"Far too often, people get their hands on gadgets (Including PCs!) that they think they need but have no idea how to use properly and have no inclination to learn to use and look after. To be fair, this is due to the way such things are sold. You can pick up a bewildering array of tech items at your nearest supermarket these days, as a consumer/commodity item. PCs, high end smart phones and the like are complicated tools. It's a shame they're not sold as such."

I agree! Items are being sold to a public that isn't fully aware of what the product can do and they don't want to be. People just want particular features that are simple to understand. Yet! At the shop the find a product that a product that seems to have everything including a lot of stuff they don't need.

[dilettante]

The whole article is such crap it isn't worth the time to read it - except for the quote repeated above.

[Pino]

I'm glad I wasnt going insane then, I was shocked and how poor this article was.

[mendhak]

Quotation sensationalism is the fodder for the masses. I'm pretty sure anyone can write bad software, regardless of OS. For example, everything that Apple has ever made.

But on a serious note, that is a philosophy that some seem to be embracing. By severely limiting what the developer can do, there are fewer chances of problems. Which of course gives some people the illusion that it's a better platform. Yeah...

But I do like and use Ubuntu, I guess this article is more about selling their particular product and services. Linux with a strong vendor lock-in.

[mendhak]

"I got into it very quickly but I got frustrated... eventually I got to the point where I wondered what a computer would be like if it was designed by a human."

Boy do I have news for you...