Let’s Chat About Microsoft

(Automated transcript.)

Let’s chat about Microsoft, shall we?

Hi everyone. Leo notenboom here for askleo.com so of course I have to start any discussion about Microsoft with a little bit of a caveat. Full disclosure, I mean, it’ll end up being a topic as from some of the stuff I want to talk about. But the reality is that indeed I worked at Microsoft for a little over 18 and a half years from 1983 through 2001. That was over 24 years ago.

So I’ve been away from Microsoft longer than I was at Microsoft. But those were fun times. I like to think of them as the golden years of Microsoft. We enjoyed a lot of new developments, exciting new technologies. We grew the company.

When I started, it was 360 people. When I left it was, you know, multiple tens of thousands of people. I’m not even sure anymore. It was quite the company. And of course while I was there I worked on many things.

In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve updated it, but I actually still have a resume. I’ll see if I can’t add a link to that in the notes for this video as well as a link to some other Microsoft hiring practices and the day that I left Microsoft, just for a little bit of context as to what I was about then, what it was like then. It’s kind of entertaining. And yeah, those are really some fond memories for me now. One of the reasons I mentioned that, of course, is because one of the things that happens to me a lot is I will post a video or write an article about some Microsoft technology and I’ll have an opinion.

Either it’ll be in a positive opinion or as we’ll see in a minute, it won’t be negative enough. One person will come along, they will view that video. Typically, I gotta believe sometimes that all they really do is read the title to the video, but give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they do watch the entire video and then they immediately turn around and call me Microsoft apologist, Microsoft, shilling, whatever. Without the context of having seen the 1500 other videos that are out there or the 5000 other articles that are out there, many of which are most definitely not pro.

Microsoft, most definitely not questioning, you know, or supporting Microsoft’s decisions or making apologies for them. My approach to Microsoft has always been that I found them a very interesting company, a very insightful company, a very exciting company to work for, but far, far from perfect. And that has been getting worse of late. Specifically for the average consumer, which ultimately are the people that I’m trying to help here on Ask Leo. The conclusion that I’ve come to in recent months especially, is that you and I, the average consumer, the individual, we’re no longer Microsoft’s customer.

They don’t seem to care about individual users. And I say that based on what I would see as questionable decision after questionable decision after questionable decision, decisions that negatively impact our ability to use Microsoft technology. Now, even that has to get a little bit nuanced because sometimes it’s simply a matter of opinion. I get that. Everybody’s got opinions.

You either like something or you don’t like something. And you know, that sometimes can affect your worldview, but often affects your ability to get done what it is you’re trying to get done. No, what I’m talking about are more significant changes that honestly make no sense. These are changes like multiple versions of Outlook, versions of Outlook that are being forced on us, and I’ll talk about that in a second, that are less capable than the versions they’re replacing. Of course, one of our favorites, OneDrive, which is.

I mean, it’s a great tool in concept. There are several tools like it out there, but there are features that defy explanation. Not that the features don’t have good intent, but the implementation makes no sense. One of the comments that I made somewhere was that back in the day, something called data loss, if you were testing a product that was about to be released and you came across a bug that caused the user to run, the potential for actually losing data, that was what we would call a showstopper. We would actually not ship the product if it really ran a reasonable risk of causing individuals to lose data.

That’s apparently not a thing anymore because OneDrive’s backup feature has designed into it the very real probability of individuals losing data. Data. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it. We’ve seen similar pushes with Copilot.

We’ve seen similar pushes with Office itself. It just. So many of these decisions, when viewed from an individual consumer’s perspective, make no sense. They just don’t add up. Now, that’s why I say that you and I, as individual consumers, we’re probably not their target market anymore.

They’re more interested in corporate because, honestly, that’s where the money is. But what that means is that a lot of these decisions are being made not with individual consumers in mind, but with corporate in mind. Then some of these things start to make a little bit more sense. I still don’t know what they’re going to do about Getting rid of the fully featured, very powerful original Microsoft Office Outlook, since they seem to be running that out and replacing it with, I don’t know, Outlook New. But the bottom line is I really think that a lot of the decisions that they’re making do not have you and I in mind.

Now, I mentioned one of the things that they seem to be doing it certainly feels like they’re doing is forcing features on us. And I see that both in terms of like Copilot is showing up on your machine whether you want it or not. OneDrive, it kind of sort of makes sense that it be there as part of Windows, but enabling its backup feature whether you want it or not. Well, they’re not really enabling it whether you want it or not. They’re just using what I would call dark patterns so that you would enable it accidentally without realizing the ramifications of your decisions.

These kinds of things, these are being forced on us. We’re being coerced or fooled into turning these features on.

Here’s a radical idea. And Microsoft, if you’re listening, I have no idea. But if you’re listening, consider this. How about instead, you create features, you implement products, you make decisions that are so good and so obvious and so easy that we as consumers want to turn them on. We want to install them, we want to use them.

Because right now, the way things are, we’re looking for ways to turn them off, we’re looking for ways to get rid of them, we’re looking for ways to make them go away. Too many of the articles and videos that I create are about avoiding Microsoft features. That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about how these features are perceived by at least this segment of your user base. Make good features, make them so good that we want them. Because honestly, the fact that you feel you have to force them on us tells me you don’t believe in the features.

You don’t believe that they’re good enough for people to choose to turn on. Now, one of the recent videos I did, of course, was what happens at Windows 10 end of support? And a number of comments on the videos are really short. The answer to what happens after Windows 10 end of support? Linux.

You know, I sympathize. I do. I love Linux myself. I really do. You’re probably aware that I actually run it on the askleo.com server.

There’s actually multiple servers that I deal with on a daily basis that are all Linux based. Honestly, there’s a part of me that wonders if I weren’t doing Ask Leo and trying to support the Windows user base, would I be more likely to be running Linux myself on my machines? And the answer is, well, probably. I mean, it’s the kind of stuff that for me at least, yeah, I really enjoy. However, as much as the Linux proponents would love to evangelize, otherwise it is not ready for prime time for the average consumer.

I have to emphasize the average consumer. Linux has gotten way better. There are individuals, all demographics of all levels of interest who are playing with and even switching to Linux if you’re looking for a distribution. Linux Mint Cinnamon seems to be very popular. I’ve heard very many good things about Zorin and honestly I’m considering doing a course on Linux.

Like I said, Linux is great, I love it. But it is not an operating system that I would throw at my grandmother, for example. Again, I want Linux to win, I really do. As we’ll see in a minute. I’m not sure where we’re headed as a, as a, you know, in terms of technology.

I want Linux to be the answer, but it’s not there. I would like to hope that Microsoft will somehow return to some kind of a consumer focus. They’ve done it in the past and they’ve done it relatively well. The issue is that I don’t see it. All of their attention seems to still be in the corporate high dollar value market where you and I are simply too small a potato to actually get their attention and make decisions or build products that really, really serve us well.

Honestly I see it all as this huge, huge lost opportunity. Kind of like Skype, right? Which was recently recently announced that Skype was going to be discontinued in a few months. Skype was an opportunity for Microsoft to take on a market, to really own a market. They were already there.

They default answer to that particular problem and they let it languish. They just left it behind. My concern is that the same thing is happening for consumers in Windows. It shouldn’t have to. The opportunity is there.

Microsoft could put together a wonderful package for consumers. They’re choosing not to. They’re choosing to let this segment of the market wither on the vine. Where do we go when that happens? Where do we as individual users go when that happens?

Well, I’ve talked about Linux already and if you want to look into Linux, by all means do it. Like I said, I’m seriously considering doing a course on switching to Linux to investigate just what it means, if nothing else, to show just what it will mean for the average user to make the switch. I know a lot of people talk about Macintosh, which again is great. They do wonderful hardware. If you’ve got the budget for it, it tends to be a little bit pricier.

It’s a trade off, right? Microsoft makes decisions, Apple makes decisions. You have to live with the decisions for the platforms that you’ve chosen. But like I said, they’re good stuff. I have Macs here.

My wife is running a Mac book Air, I think it is. It’s been a while. I’ve got a Mac Pro in the basement that’s acting as a server for me. So again, good stuff. Not everybody’s cup of tea.

A lot of people mention Google, Chromebooks, Chromebooks in general. Again, good technology. I love what they are. I actually have given them to individuals who, who are not techie at all and are just interested in doing the basics. Email, web and so forth.

Great.

What about the rest of us? What about those of us that are using Windows and want to keep using Windows? Because we either do like much of what Windows has to offer or maybe we’re required to use it for some software compatibility or work compatibility or whatnot. I just don’t know where that Future leads. Windows 11 has told us a few things about what Microsoft is prioritizing.

It doesn’t feel like it’s us. And yet if Windows is your thing, if Windows really is what you need, the options are few and far between. I’m sounding not particularly hopeful and only because Microsoft has kind of sort of beaten it out of me for the past couple years with their approach to many of the product decisions that I’ve talked about so far in this video, I will continue to do what I do. But rather than have Ask Leo become a Microsoft bashing channel because there’s plenty of those out there, or a here’s how you get rid of Microsoft channel, because again, there’s plenty of those out there. My goal, one of my goals is to, while still being frustrated with the decisions that Microsoft is making, present ways of dealing with those decisions that allow the average consumer to continue to use Windows as pragmatically as possible.

It’ll never be ideal. A lot of the things that I talk about on a day to day basis are workarounds. Shouldn’t have to be like that. But that’s where we are with respect to Windows. I think there’s hope in the long run.

I just don’t know what it looks like. I know people are talking to me about Windows 12. To be clear, to be super clear, never has Microsoft talked about Windows 12. There is nothing ever been said about there even being a Windows 12. Pragmatically, I’m sure it’ll happen someday, but when what it might entail, you know, all that kind of stuff, it’s pure speculation.

It’s pure rumor. We don’t really know what the future holds. I’m hopeful that Microsoft might pay attention to the consumers again someday, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. So yeah, when it comes to Windows, I’m going to continue to answer questions about Windows. I’m going to continue to help people use Windows in the ways that they can.

It’ll be how to work with it as pragmatically and as usefully as possible with again, pragmatic alternatives when those present themselves.

Does this sound like a Microsoft shill to you? I don’t think so. I laugh whenever I get those comments just because I know what I think about what’s going on in the world. I’m not hating Microsoft enough to their like. But the fact is I’m certainly not a Microsoft sycophant either.

They’ve been good to me, but they’re not being good to the consumer right now and that has me deeply concerned. Anyway, that’s me chatting about Microsoft. I don’t even have to ask for you to share your comments because I know that this is a very passionate subject for many. But please let me know what you think of all of this down in the comments to this video or on the page on which this video is posted. And I will talk to you again soon.

Thanks for paying attention. Thanks for watching to the end. And like I said, I will talk to you again real soon. Take care. Bye.