Most of us hate microsoft. On a positive note...

[xequence]

Most of us hate microsoft. On a positive note though, what do you think was microsofts best product?

For me, I have to say Visual Basic. Most linux users hate it but the fact is, it is easy and I can make simple programs with it. Plus many VB programs run in wine/cedega.

Also, age of empires (the original, I havnt played II or III) is a brilliant game.

[mstlyevil]

Windows 2000 probally ranks up there because of it's lack of bloat and it's improved stability over 95/98/ME. It also uses less system resources than Win XP.

[23meg]

My list of good MS products, in order of goodness:

- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Windows 2000
- XP Tablet Pc Edition extras
- OneNote

[phanboy_iv]

WordPad:D

[KingBahamut]

Their best product....hmmmm...thats a tough one.

Thats a Toss up, but Ill take a guess.

Excel. This would largely be because it was the reason hundreds bought MSoffice, out performed its calc-ish competitors - Lotus 123 , etc. And is largely responsible for the advent of Access and MSSQL.

[matthew]

MS Bob. <mischevious grin>

Umm...for me the last thing I used by them that I preferred over what I had used previously was MS-DOS 6.22. One can (accurately) argue that most of their best stuff came through acquisitions or possibly plagarism. Anyway, I remember arguing with my friends that I didn't want to switch to windows just because everyone else was and I was dragged kicking and screaming all the way.

Oh, they did write Microsoft BASIC, didn't they? Flight Simulator was fun as was Age of Empires, Windows 2000 was probably the best of the Windows bunch.

[ssam]

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg.php)

[bored2k]

what do you think was microsofts best product?Why do you talk like it's dead :P?

Anyways, I think the whole Microsoft Office suite is their -if not one of the overall- best ensemble of applications. Also, although I don't enjoy at all, Microsoft Flight Simulator puts every other simulator to shame.

[Stormy Eyes]

I like their optical trackballs.

[az]

freecell.exe

[GeneralZod]

As always, I have to vote VC++ for its for C++ Edit and Continue stuff + intellisense.

[matthew]

I forgot to mention that I am using a Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard and wireless mouse. They are pretty nice.

[xaque]

The Xbox, for being so hackable. :)

[BWF89]

Microsoft Pinball Arcade - PC - 1998

[Brunellus]

the original Microsoft Mouse.

[asimon]

On a positive note though, what do you think was microsofts best product?
Their natural keyboard of course.

[Sykil]

Their Pinball is so addictive---but so is Tetris, so um... yeah.

Most of the time, I would find alternatives to MS apps---I never was that fond of them---but Excel is great, and I enjoy using it.

[ljamie82]

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg.php)


dude that was CRAZY!!! i sent it to all my friends. . .. funny stuff

[imagine]

Windows 2000 and Notepad.

[xequence]

Why do you talk like it's dead :P?

Anyways, I think the whole Microsoft Office suite is their -if not one of the overall- best ensemble of applications. Also, although I don't enjoy at all, Microsoft Flight Simulator puts every other simulator to shame.

Not acting like its dead, just bringing the positive out of people who are so negative towards microsoft. Myself included ;)

[sourc3]

I have to thank their task manager... for giving me the reason to switch to linux... Keep up the good work Bill!!! ;)

[kvidell]

I'm not sure... I think I like the Train and Plane simulators best.
- K

[Adrian]

Most of us hate microsoft. On a positive note though, what do you think was microsofts best product?


Hmm... I'd say QuickBasic :)
It was really a huge improvement over GW-BASIC, and I remember how nice it was to finally get rid of those line numbers (and the AUTO command).

Their worst program is also a BASIC interpretator: AmigaBASIC (To my knowledge, the only Microsoft program for the Amiga). Totally totally useless.

[super]

freecell.exe

i gotta go with sol.exe
i like it so much that i installed wine just so i could play in linux! :D

stick to the card games billy boy! :razz:

[Qrk]

excel

Sure open office calc is fine now, but back in the day excel is probably a huge part of why Windows became a monopoly. It was powerful yet simple.

[etc]

Office 2000

[MacStew123]

Sure open office calc is fine now, but back in the day excel is probably a huge part of why Windows became a monopoly. It was powerful yet simple.

Gotta agree on that...MS were in the market early enough to provide business users with what they needed...the ability to view & edit critical business info & docs anywhere in the world with "relative" ease.

Do you really think that MS deserve all the grief they get though (whoa, i can sense the swords being drawn)...but really, sure they have more than enough market share and yeah, their pricing model sucks! but the rest of the SW market is no different and besides, the western economies eco growth is fueled by capitalism, is it not?

Don't get me wrong, MS have never impressed me and I agree with everyone that they've made sum silly errors but let's give em credit...if MS had used their profits purely focussing on developing and maintaining the worlds most kick ***, secure, 10 in 1 OS, where wud that leave them now? Would open source have come to the party sooner or later than it has? And would our perception of MS be any different?

My initial response was yeah, Id still hate them...but then I remembered that small company called Google...no one (except those with porn sites or libraries) seem to hate Google at all...why? Because they're giving consumers what they want & need...something MS didnt do (yet) however..Google ARE, using price advantage to get market share...what effect is this having on a biz like MS and how will they deal with it - that's the question I think Bill has been pondering for the last 10 years and still doesnt know the answer to...the OS/SW market has in the last 10 yrs experienced increasing dynamic growth outside the US but top organizations like MS, Amazon, IBM, VeriSign, etc all seemed to catch onto this really late which in the case of many US organizations, has been the demise....so where am I going with this??

Well, basically I'm saying that MS have done less wrong than we all believe. They have only done what's been necessary to remain competitive while operating in a misty market in an increasingly unstable economy...consumers are never satisfied and in the world of IT, every users main concern is Control...is that not why the industry shifted to favous Open Source? Yeah, it is...so dnt blame Microsoft for crappy apps or poor software...they have 1000's of employees and liabilities which rely on MS to survive and at times, the only way to protect these is at the expense of the customer, but this will pass....!

Microsofts best product you ask???...it aint here yet mate, but it aint far off and it cud completely redefine what's happening in this war btwn a SW and Media company :)

[Zensunni]

The hate of microsoft and the hate of their products is two different things. Most users hate the former and like the ladder. But even when you like the ladder, it still doesn't sit right when the ladder could be so much better.

I can't seem to think of one unique feature that they have which hasn't left me sore about them.

All their products are buggy and outdated (such as their internet explorer, which is still not complient with w3.org standards). There's always updates, but does that make their products better? No, it's just to compensate for their lack of quality programming.

They never contribute by adding to existing development. Instead, they suppress the industry by undermining already-placed standards with their own.

They're as hard-fisted about protecting their propreitary properties as a pirate is to liquor. And, their products are always a money-squeze.

Every product of theirs I would otherwise like has always left me sore later on. The only thing I really like about them is that they've made a heavy standard for programs and PC games to work on. Their OS is the only thing that has made a contrabution to PCs.

Edit: To reply to macstew....

Microsoft yesterday isn't the same microsoft as today. Those initial pioneers of silicone valley were very upstart individuals with no influence to anything. Sure, they played to win, and did what it took to get there, but what got them there is making good products and making rapid development of the industry.

Now, however, "succeeding" doesn't mean making good products anymore. Most companies are all figuring out that it's not how good the hamburger is, it's how redily available it is to the customer. This kind of mentality is what everyone screams about. Company's who opt for "business agendas" that work to make product delivery a mechanical process, instead of making a good product should be ashamed of themselves...

I can't blame a company for playing to win (such as sun tsu's philosophy), but I CAN blame them for making bad products and stagnating the industry so that they can continue to win. What good is capitalism when companies can single out the equasion of improvement = reward?

[PsyberOneZero]

As much of an evil empire as they are, once in a while they do hire someone good.

Visual Studio used to suck, then they got the head developer (or one of the heads) from Delphi, and now VS rocks. I've got VS 2005 (legally, there's a free+S&H beta) and it's the one reason I keep XP on a VM. When Anjuta, Eclipse or MonoDevelop reach that benchmark MS is gone for good.

OneNote isn't bad either

[cityismine]

I'd probably say win2000, even though it lacks xp's eye-candy, it's much more stable. Plus it can run anything that runs in xp.

I don't know why M$ makes so many OS's and then applications that run on that specific OS, even though there based on the same architechure. For example win95, win98, & Millenium edition are pretty much the same, and so is win2000, xp, & xp media edition. So why would M$ make an application, that runs on win98 but not win95, unless they specifically programmed it not to run on win95.

This also reminds me of apple, who's OS only runs on apple computers. But it's based on unix, so it should be able to run on pcs as well, unless they specifically programmed it not to. Specially when future apples are going to run on intel cpus.

[nrwilk]

Dungeon Siege

Or, maybe Minesweeper

[Xlylith]

Most of us hate microsoft. On a positive note though, what do you think was microsofts best product?


Visio

and Excel

[poofyhairguy]

Internet Explorer 4.

Or it was the best at the time. By far.

Now I would say the best product is their original Bluetooth mice. I might try to find one because their new models feel so cheap.

Worst product from MS?

Windows ME and Intenet Explorer 7 in a tie

(yes I know seven is not out yet, but unless they start over the thing is gonna be horrid)

[benplaut]

flight sim is awesome, but a bit heavy on resources (but wonderfully hackable!)

MS Powerpoint XP and 2003 are incredible programs... i can't live without Powerpoint.

In general, almost all human interface devices (mice, keyboards) are of terrific quality, really confortable, and last forever - my friends think it odd that i'm a linux user with an intellimouse, but i just grin behind their backs as they travel down the road to carpal tunnel :D

[wilford]

You guys talk about MS flight sim make me want to try it. :D Is that downloadable? Or is my question just down right dumb? haha

Back to topic. Since in my school days, we often have projects, reports and stufs. I would say, i can't survive without MSword. haha but the whole office is fine with me. :D

[dbw]

Yeah, excel still is pretty sweet. They didn't have anything to do with it, but I love the program Igor, which purports to only run under Win.

[Hobbsee]

pinball and minesweeper.

I've yet to find a good clone for either (yes, tried kmines)

[gray-squirrel]

My favorite: Microsoft Golf.

I would have said Internet Explorer 4.0, but Microsoft failed to build on some of its good features. I thought the Channel screen saver, which always displayed updated content when the computer was connected to the Internet, was many times better than PointCast. Sadly to say, I could not get it to work after 5.0 was installed.

Now, I'll see if I can find something similar for Kubuntu, just in case the 3D screensavers slow down due to a breakage with the Unichrome driver. . .

[Bharath]

Hi,

Check out http://memoranda.sourceforge.net/ for Onenote replacement. Memoranda has more than 50% of the functionalities of OneNote.

Bharath

[Adamant1988]

their best product? commercially speaking I would have to say it's windows.
I can't think of any other software product which produces and maintains it's own economy... "Pay people to make windows, sell windows for a lot; Have people pay us to be licensed to fix Windows, those people now have jobs; Give OEMs large discounts in order to get our stuff on PCs before our nonexistant competitors can get a crack at it; guaranteed sales and more money made in software designed for our operating system"

I know I missed a lot, that was just a quicky on the many many many ways that microsoft makes money on their flagship product... seems like it would be their "best" to me. *shrug*

[DoktorSeven]

Their best hardware product is their optical mice. Can't help it, I like mine, even though it's probably sending back information on my mouse movements to the mothership somehow ;)

Best OS? Win2k. Free of the DOS trappings of 9x, relatively stable, and not yet bloated like XP, Server 2k3, and (especially) Vista.

Best non-OS software product? I can't stand anything they've made, especially Office. Office has never impressed me very much and I know it's ready to infect its host system with all sorts of macro viruses at any time. So, best of the worst, um, Solitaire I guess? :)

[Michael_aust]

The two best I have seen are:

MS Flight simulator
Windows Movie maker (ok it is not very feature packaged and extremely limited. But compare that to the video tools available for Linux. Have you tried looking for an easy to use video editor on Linux, one were you simply drag and drop a few images and video files then save it as a video like you do with Windows Movie Maker. Because if you have then you will realise there are NONE!. The closest I have found is Diva, but that is not exactly ready to be used yet.)

Does the BSOD count. You have to admire the way it has never been updated. It says press any button to continue, yet everybody knows the only button that will do anything is Esc.

[digTro]

The quality of their software maybe doubtable, but MS makes pretty darn good keyboards and mice. I use both their natural keyboard and comfort mouse.

[Donnut]

Yeah, the only problem is it donsn't always work, last night I plugged a mouse into a wintel machine, and nota, nothing, didn't work. I expect comps to work for me not the other way around... The drivers weren't even installed already! I had to go aroung linux looking for wi-fi drivers just so that I could get internet! Again, vever had to this in Ubuntu, not even in the 5.04/5.10 days... Oh wait, this was supposed to be a positive thread...

[Mathiasdm]

Most of us hate microsoft. On a positive note though, what do you think was microsofts best product?

For me, I have to say Visual Basic. Most linux users hate it but the fact is, it is easy and I can make simple programs with it. Plus many VB programs run in wine/cedega.

Also, age of empires (the original, I havnt played II or III) is a brilliant game.
Most of us hate Microsoft?
We do?

[kostkon]

The Microsoft products that I respect are:


most of its optical mice
ms flight simulator
age of empires II


and maybe


ms keyboards
Windows 2000


Microsoft, really makes, maybe in most of the cases, great hardware. Its mice set new standards of quality, technology and usability. For example, the new standard they set it's high resolution laser movement tracking.

Furthermore, their keyboards are really good quality.

Age of Empires II is an absolute classic. Not need to say more... The same can be said for Flight Simulator.

I really liked Windows 2000. The best Microsoft OS by far. Lightweight, safe and, most importantly, seriously business-grade OS.

[argie]

I liked the XBox, nice games.

And I liked AoE too, all the version upto Conquerors.

[atrus123]

They make some damn fine mice.

I think Office is also pretty good, and it looks like it will continue being good, if things I've heard about the current beta are true.

[BlacKat_K]

To me the best thing about Windows/Microsoft was making me switch to Ubuntu :D Period.

[Wallakoala]

xbox isn't bad.

Office isn't that bad either.

[buckethead27]

I'VE GOT IT!

Windows 95's SkiFree!

That game always entertained me as a kid, along with the games in encarta encyclopedia. Ahh memories:rolleyes:

[xhaan]

The 95/98 explorer shell... for the fact that you could easily replace it with something better. :p

[mirak63]

Starlancer, the game was not bad.

[Eddie Wilson]

Windows 2000
Visio

[macogw]

I can't really think of any. Not being a gamer, there are no games for me to miss. I've found a lot more really useful little apps for Linux than for Windows, too, so I wouldn't switch back. I guess I'd have to go with the person who said VB. It was the first way I learned to program, and it makes GUIs really easily.

[fuscia]

i liked ME. it wasn't stodgy like 2000.

[newlinux]

Excel and Powerpoint. Office overall is pretty good, but MS word makes me go crazy. It tries to be too smart for its own good.

[Lord Illidan]

I liked Age of Empires, Visual Studio, and MS Office...but other than that...I also liked that it could play lotsa games.

[justin whitaker]

Visio
Excel
One Note

Each of those are killer apps.

[awakatanka]

Microsoft Office
Ages of Empires

[public_void]

Age of Empires II
Visual Studio

[jeffc313]

freeski! anyone remember that game!

[Bloodfen Razormaw]

Visual Studio.NET, MS SQL Server, and Excel are fantastic products.

[mustang]

freeski! anyone remember that game!

Yep. I play it (via wine) every now and then.

[jeepescu]

I am surprised that no one mentioned Windows NT.

At a time when there was not much else, NT was by far the most stable OS in the history of MS. No fuss, nothing flashy, just stuff that worked. Same as Linux now.

I never understood why people were running 95 or Me when NT was around!!!

Oh, and btw, I don't hate MS. At one point, they were the best software writers in the world, too bad it changed a lot since then.
BN

[nalmeth]

freeski! anyone remember that game!
Are you talking about the old ski game where the saskquatch eventually comes after you and eats you?

I thought it was called ski run but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere!

[Reshin]

I never understood why people were running 95 or Me when NT was around!!!

Because gaming on NT sucked?

[Mihkal]

The xbox gaming console.

The reason is simple:
it's bulletproof :mrgreen:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=53995

[jeffc313]

Are you talking about the old ski game where the saskquatch eventually comes after you and eats you?

I thought it was called ski run but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere!

its called "SkiFree" just looked it up
http://ski.ihoc.net/
download it there

[henriquemaia]

Most of us? Count me off.

[aysiu]

Most of us? Count me off.
Count me out, too, but I don't think we constitute "most of us."

[Buzzygirl]

- Visual Basic;

- Age of Empires (the first game this non-computer-gamer has really enjoyed); and

- Power Point.

I still have to use Windows XP at work. Besides my "regular" job, I also provide here-and-there tech support for those in my department. I'm comfortable working with XP, but I don't like working with it. It just comes with the job.

I still have a computer dedicated to Windows at home. I need it for work stuff. The only time it's turned on nowadays is when I need to work from home, which, thankfully, generally isn't more than a couple of times a month.

[kleeman]

c:\directory\Trojan.exe

Ducks.....

[punkinside]

MS Office (Word & Powerpoint), Norton Anti-virus LiveUpdate and Add-Aware and iTunes are the only things i use when I boot windows.

Oh and once a year when I go to germany for a month or more I use MSN messenger to video chat with my gf. I just cant ge the damn camara to work under ubuntu.

But I must admit I only use Office cause I'm so damn accustomed to it, have been using it too many years and already know all the useful keyboard combos, and cause alt + XXX combinations for special spanish characters that I have not gotten to work in ubuntu anywhere (I love the english keyboard layout but I still need to write in spanish)

[IYY]

MS Paint - I still haven't found a program with an interface as comfortable in Linux.
MS Office - It really is better than Open Office (though I prefer using LaTeX whenever possible).
Notepad - I use vi, but for a plain text editor it's quite good.

[aysiu]

MS Paint - I still haven't found a program with an interface as comfortable in Linux. Really? I actually prefer Kolourpaint. It's virtually the same but slightly more powerful (for example, undo for a paste and move and resize undoes only the very last action, not the whole set of last actions) Notepad - I use vi, but for a plain text editor it's quite good. Notepad is godawful. In Windows at work I actually use Notepad++ (which is open source and excellent). Gedit and Kate suit me just fine.

[Dr. C]

I would suggest Windows 2000 and Office 2000 as Microsoft best products. They are the last versions of Windows and Office that were not for the most part infected with DRM.

I do not hate Microsoft, but I do belive that Microsoft made a very serious error in going the DRM route starting in 2000. An error for which Microsoft's shareholders have and will pay dearly for.

[Arisna]

Count me "in" as one who really does hate Microsoft. The only good product they've ever made in my opinion is Excel, and even that is easily replaceable with any of at least three FOSS apps I can think of right now.

[GliderMike]

I haven't thoroughly read each post here so forgive me if it's been stated, but my favorite MS software would have to be...

FORMAT.COM
(or is it .EXE? Can't recall)

[rfruth]

The Gates Foundation http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm - software wise no thanks :(

[Sirin]

Microsoft Office 2007. I like the ribbon. It beats out the toolbar for me (but it may not for some other people... :neutral: ).

[IYY]

Really? I actually prefer Kolourpaint. It's virtually the same but slightly more powerful (for example, undo for a paste and move and resize undoes only the very last action, not the whole set of last actions)


Kolourpaint is a clone of MS paint, so I am still allowed to say that this was a good Microsoft product. It also has a major problem with drawing circles. They just don't look right.

[aysiu]

Kolourpaint is a clone of MS paint, so I am still allowed to say that this was a good Microsoft product. It also has a major problem with drawing circles. They just don't look right.
Oh, are we listing good Microsoft products? Okay, then. But, as I don't draw circles in MS Paint or Kolourpaint, I'm still going to prefer the latter.

[SolidAndShade]

One of MS's best creations was their help system. It was also probably their most original creation--most MS apps were copied or bought out from other software makers, but the online help for Windows 95 was pretty much their own idea. Before that came along, no one had ever seen a searchable, multi-page help system linked directly to the programs it serviced.

[Reshin]

- Office
- Age Of Empires 2
- Win2K & XP (yes, I think it's good)

- And already mentioned Gates Foundation :)

[Kronoz]

Office (Word and Excel in particular) and VC++.

[macogw]

Really? I actually prefer Kolourpaint. It's virtually the same but slightly more powerful (for example, undo for a paste and move and resize undoes only the very last action, not the whole set of last actions) Notepad is godawful. In Windows at work I actually use Notepad++ (which is open source and excellent). Gedit and Kate suit me just fine.

I love Notepad! It's nice and stripped down. I like that it loads immediately, unlike Office (or OOo) and I just don't want a text editor to be cluttered. Yes, the syntax highlighting in gEdit is nice, but I don't need it. I can read my html just dandy without it. It's all I used for website making (now I use gEdit though).

[aysiu]

If you love Notepad, you might want to give Notepad++ a shot.

[Brunellus]

I love Notepad! It's nice and stripped down. I like that it loads immediately, unlike Office (or OOo) and I just don't want a text editor to be cluttered. Yes, the syntax highlighting in gEdit is nice, but I don't need it. I can read my html just dandy without it. It's all I used for website making (now I use gEdit though).
you want stripped down, there's always vi or ed.

[thunderduck3141]

their vaccums, only product they make that doesnt suck

[robinl]

Games: Flight Simulator - With all of the myriads of plugins and addons... Kind of like Windows with all the apps.
Halo - What made XBox XBox.

Software: removelinux.exe - works like a dream, a bug though, is that it removes Windows is well.

Hardware: Their joysticks, and keyboard, and mouse.

[Cyraxzz]

Excel and.... nothing else comes to mind.

[PryGuy]

Visual Studio .NET 2005
MCE Idea and shell...

I can't say anything good about Windows itself

[cunawarit]

I don't hate Microsoft, in fact I quite like it as a company.

Anyway, Microsoft products I think are awesome:

XBox
Halo
Microsoft mice
Windows 2003 Server
Visual Studio 2005

[chajuram]

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg.php)

Really good spoof.

[tszanon]

MS best product? There are so many I have to make a list.
...
Yeah, I can't remember right now, but I'm sure that someone will.

If I could at least remember one of those that never ever crashed...oh god.

I'm sorry: I just realized that the BEST one isn't necessarily a GOOD product :D :D

I must say I considered only MS software. I never had enough courage to test MS hardware...(just imagine: "oh, my keyboard hung again!")

[Brunellus]

MS best product? There are so many I have to make a list.
...
Yeah, I can't remember right now, but I'm sure that someone will.

If I could at least remember one of those that never ever crashed...oh god.

I'm sorry: I just realized that the BEST one isn't necessarily a GOOD product :D :D

I must say I considered only MS software. I never had enough courage to test MS hardware...(just imagine: "oh, my keyboard hung again!")
their mice were always excellent. Really quite durable. We have a 1992 Microsoft Mouse that still gets used from time to time as a backup.

[superjet]

I LOVE Microsoft Products! All of them! I make a tidy living fixing broken/virus filled/malware riddled/blue screened boxes.

People feel they need to upgrade their machines all the time because over time, they grind to a halt with all of the rubbish they install/gets installed and they forget how fast their machines were when they were first built. Hell, put a fresh install of XP on a machine, use if for a bit....then put Anti-Virus on it....Noticeably slower....

I can't wait until Vista comes out. Everyone will want to have the Areo Windows manager......
Why do you think AMD bought ATI and Intel is looking at Nvidia?
This is the first Windows version that will have the main feature crippled unless you spend $$$$ on upgrading your video card.

SO, I love all of it.

Sorry for the rant, but it is all true!

[bigken]

MS windows 98 SE and I do thank uncle bill for making me aware of linux
without windows and the www I would have never stumbled upon the this great comunity and software :D

[TrailerTrash]

I like Windows ME. Yes...I do....I have a laptop that i use everyday that i bought new with ME on it. Ive NEVER had any problems. I Also like Windows 2000. Its much more stable than XP. ;)

[Bree]

Windows 2000 and Microsoft mice... That's all that coems to mind lol.

[RAV TUX]

moving this thread to Windows discussion forum.

[bukwirm]

I have a nice Microsoft Optical mouse...

[PryGuy]

So, in fact many people here like Microsoft.:) Yet I think that most people here do not have anything against Microsoft as a creative team but we do not like the philosophy of Microsoft.

[kopilo]

Access is ok for a dumbed down version of databasing which stops people who are new to relational databasing from making (some) very bad decisions.

I'd also say that the free MS downloads are alright as well, not the trial but the full versions of stuff such as baseline defender.

[Phantom784]

I like microsoft office. I had to do a powerpoint for school the other day and powerpoint 97 under wine was much faster than the open office or kde equivalent. oh, and the xbox, because it's so fun to hack.

but the only thing windows is good for is burning linux install cds.

[mysticrider92]

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg.php) Nice. :D

If I had to choose, I would probably say MS-Dos ;) . No Gui, but you can do so much to your system, and it doesn't need a supercomputer to run (cough, cough, Vista), and it doesn't crash unless you compile a bad C++ program on an old PC.:D Very simple, also.

My Microsoft optical mouse is pretty nice too.

[LookTJ]

1. Windows 3.1

2. Windows 2000

3. Windows XP Pro

4. Windows 98

5. Windows Vista

[Naralas]

There was once an avatar that said:

Use the best:
Linux for servers.
MacOS for graphics.
PalmOS for mobility.
Windows for solitare.

But thats not quite enough said, my friend revised it beautifully (im getting to the point here)

Linux for *
Windows for null

Anyways, like I said (well like i implied using an example actually), I think solitare is probably there best software. Its the best version of it on the web. Its intuitive, usefull, quick, and fun. Something Window's never does. Although I have never used it from what I HEAR I hafta give some respect to Windows 2000 too.

[denad]

Good one Naralas! :D

The whole Microsoft flightsimulator series, I dont remember which years I have played, but they are generally very entertaining, Age of Empires I too.

[onon_onon]

VBA, for sure. I must use M$ at work and VBA make my job easy a lot.

[rocknrolf77]

The xbox for pushing the game console prices down and more titles come out. And the control pad is way better than sony playstation's. (how about this scenery : Your accelarator pedal in your car was just 2 different modes. ON and OFF, that would be a real traffic hazard.) And the fact that microsoft is the outsider in that area. Even though I don't like the idea of microsoft having even more money. Maybe they will use a ton of money on their mp3 player and it will flop. The developers of the halo series. Are they hired or owned by microsoft. If they are just hired, then halo is not a microsoft product. Just a product for the xbox.:)

[missmoondog]

i can take them or leave them now that i've finally somewhat grasped this linux thing! have to have a couple windows boxes around for my non supported visioneer scanners.

vista's thing just isn't sounding to cool to me, either. :(

[Narzuhl]

For me....none of their desktop OS's
Serverwise.....2003 is not bad. 2000 is not great.
SQL 2005 is a great product and leaps and bounds over their older versions. And i like it bettern that MySQL.
Aside from that the new Exchange 2003 Sp2 is nice with the push technology (like the Blackberry).....But then they are bringing out 2007 and that requires a 64bit CPU...that will not happen in my company for a long time.

[the.dark.lord]

Windows RG(obviously)... ha ha
On a more serious note, I would say Age of Empires and Age of Mythology.

[suziequzie]

When my ex-boyfriend bought his old amd k6 computer back in 2000, it had windows 98 with a plus pack that included some cool games: Fringer, Flinty Flush, Spring Weekend, Colour Collision. I think it was part of the Entertainment Puzzle Pack. Cool fun.:-D

[buntu23]

Age of Empires 1
Halo


and Microsoft Word XP - the earliest version without all the blue visuals - only because it would start as fast as the notepad.

I used windows all my life - just switched to ubuntu 2 weeks ago - and it is honestly at least 10 times better....

[jon_h]

Halo.
Got to love Halo.

[M$LOL]

By far, the best M$ product ever has to be Visual C++.

[revolution_mac_usr]

Halo.
Got to love Halo.

Bungie gets all the credit for Halo, M$ just bought them and marketed the game in their name. When it first debuted, it was going to run on Mac OS 9.

[Chymera]

MSDOS. Actually its the thing that got them going :-P

[angryfirelord]

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg.php)
:lolflag: