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0 pointsRiderOfGiraffes15y ago0 comments

  > Erm... you can download for free compilers from
  > Microsoft or the Visual Studio Express editions.
  > Or you could get all of those above things for
  > Windows. You get IIS with Windows.

Maybe you can now, but when I was getting into programming you couldn't. Things have changed, but consider a more recent example. I use a Windows laptop when travelling because I can no longer be bothered with the hassle of dealing with customer support who have no clue that anything other than Windows exists. If I have touble connecting to someone's hacked up, third-rate wireless internet, I'd better be using Windows or I'm screwed.

But I use Open Office. Oh, look, Microsoft now has a docx format, and half the world assumes everyone else is running the very latest version of Windows, and Word, and now I'm being sent documents I can't read.

At the time this started I checked, and I looked, and nowhere could I find any way to read or convert these files without paying for a new version of Word.

Time and time again I have these problems, and when I do, they seem to be associated with Microsoft.

I don't hate them, I just avoid them. Most of my computing pain in the past 30 years has come from them.

And in truth I don't care, and don't think about them. I have better things to do.

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recoiledsnake15y ago· 1 in thread

>At the time this started I checked, and I looked, and nowhere could I find any way to read or convert these files without paying for a new version of Word.

You should have looked and checked harder. Word Viewer was always free.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=...

>View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed.

RiderOfGiraffesOP15y ago

Excellent - thanks.

Oh, hang on, I'd still need to use Windows, which is a rare event for me. Still, nice to know I can use a Windows machine to read Windows files.

Oh, hang on, I also need the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. I'll put that on the list too.

And actually, this still isn't the point. There are still the "embrace and extend" issues I need to deal with, and the "interesting" interpretations they put on the standards, and the inter-operability issues raised.

Microsoft is no longer the company they once were, but I've had so much grief and so much pain from dealing with their systems I just avoid them. I can't bring myself to care, or to waste the time.

Which is why I won't bother replying further to this thread. I've answered the question, I've provided information, and explained my circumstances, and now I'm moving on to get stuff done. Without Microsoft.

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