Published at LXer:

* LXer Feature: 16-Jan-06Experienced IT professionals don't buy the Microsoft hype about their R&D investments. GNU/Linux vendors can use Microsoft's questionable selling point to contrast Microsoft's investment in solving perceived problems with the libre software world's investment in solving actual problems. Digg Story

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This confirms what many people have been saying for years. The fact is that Microsoft put in a load of features you didn't ask for or even realise you would ever need - and you probably will never use - call them "features" and then force you to upgrade.

What they should do is to fix the current versions and leave them alone for a while. I'd be quite happy with Office at the level of Office 97 (WRT "features") and have them add in the repair function.

KDE and Gnome and OOo need to bear this sort of thing in mind - I don't want a million features I'll never use, I want the ones I do use to be stable and work.

The real trick is to convince developers that bug fixes and performance tweaks are as valuable (if not more) as new features. I don't think I've ever met a developer that didn't VASTLY prefer adding in new stuff over fixing what is already there. Sometimes I wonder if that isn't at the core of Microsoft's obsession with features.