[OmegaZero_Alpha]

they wouldn't have to all-out drop it, just offer better features with it (like they do with all of their shit. They don't actually make their shit better, they just give you better gimmicks as they go along.) like competent packet shaping utilities, or a decent version of Internet Explorer (and an explanation of where the hell LiveLight came from, and why nobody uses it)

[Drunken F00l]

...They don't actually make their shit better, they just give you better gimmicks as they go along...

Therefore Microsoft Windows XP = Microsoft Windows 3.1 + Gimmicks w/ no enhancements

Therefore Microsoft Office 2003 = Microsoft Office 95 + Gimmicks w/ no enhancements

Therefore Microsoft Visual Studio 2005...
...Xbox360...
...Windows Server 2003...
...

If you actually mean this, you're a clown.

And by livelight do you mean silverlight?

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

What real enhancements did they make on the 360? all they did was throw in 100$ worth of parts on an Xbox and crank up the price 250$...

And I suppose Vista is a revolutionary piece of software and computing will never be the same now that it has arrived...

as for office, its a word and spreadsheet processor. it processes words and spreadsheets. all there is left is gimmicks. (i don't really know what else comes with office other than excell, word, powerpoint and outlook, but im sure it is useless)

"...They don't actually make their shit better, they just give you better gimmicks as they go along..."

Of course I was exaggerating!!! I'm just saying that microsoft takes their sweet ass time developing things (at least for the amount of resources at their disposal). There is no need to take everything way-too-literally...

[Drunken F00l]

Then by your definition of a "gimmick" stick with your compy-386 because all they have done to computing since is add a bunch of gimmicks.

Be sure to stay away from Half-Life 2 because it really is just Half-Life 1 plus a bunch of gimmicks.

Don't touch SourceOP either. It's just AdminOP plus a bunch of gimmicks.

It seems to me as though these gimmicks you are referring to are actually improvements. The hardware additions to the XBOX 360 are costly and definitely improvements. If all I wanted in an office program was the ability to type and enter values in a spreadsheet I would have stuck with the typewriter. Office provides much more than that and adds more to each edition.

[larz]

What real enhancements did they make on the 360? all they did was throw in 100$ worth of parts on an Xbox and crank up the price 250$...

And I suppose Vista is a revolutionary piece of software and computing will never be the same now that it has arrived...

as for office, its a word and spreadsheet processor. it processes words and spreadsheets. all there is left is gimmicks. (i don't really know what else comes with office other than excell, word, powerpoint and outlook, but im sure it is useless)

"...They don't actually make their shit better, they just give you better gimmicks as they go along..."

Of course I was exaggerating!!! I'm just saying that microsoft takes their sweet ass time developing things (at least for the amount of resources at their disposal). There is no need to take everything way-too-literally...

j00 g07 owned!

[Retribution]

ok i don't think you can call user friendlyness a gimmick
with out it we wouldn't ever get to play with larz, and microsoft sales would be alteast halved, i mean theres a lot of very stupid people out there

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

Halo was a horrible example, by the way. I still can't tell the difference between the first and the second (except for a couple multiplayer modes and weapons)

in fact, all of your examples were sort of lacking.

in all of those examples they have actually changed the base product in order to make it better. (computers got better, half life and sourceop got a completely new engine,)

as for my beef with office, I know they add some functional differences, but at the price tags they are tacking onto these, for the few differences there actually are, it is ridiculous. I mean, the only real difference in Word07 boils down to a fancy skin (wow, a 'ribbon' that helps me use features that I can easily have just searched for in a help file, that is worth the extra 100$)

and I'm not claiming that these gimmicks don't evolve into worthwhile features after a while, they just don't have enough backing them when they are first released (if you can remember the first versions of spell check)

with software, a gimmick is essentially something that could have easily been released in a patch, but the company is full of giant whores.

[Drunken F00l]

Nobody said anything about Halo. However, let's say I did. Would you rather they force a patch on everyone instead of providing the option of both Halo 1 and Halo 2?

I never brought Office 07 in to the picture because it's arguably worse. I left it at Office 2003.

AFAIK The price tag for Office has remained relatively constant throughout the versions (I get it free through the university so whatever).

I'd like to see you deploy new hardware in a "patch" (XBOX 360 reference). Though I haven't seen the code, I'm pretty sure some of the stuff in new Office and Windows versions required a lot of refactoring and new design thus new releases.

Also, it doesn't make much business since to keep a product on the shelf forever (e.g. "Office 1.0") and just provide a giant patch online each time they decide to make a new release. You might as well release a new product, especially if it will be roughly the new price. Do you get what I mean?

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

I understand, but you should also have to agree that whille the price they have remains constant, the features and improvements do not. I do like Office 2007, but it wasn't enough of an improvement over 2003 to justify having the same price.

I never suggested patching hardware (although they desperately need to do something about the damn things dieing still), that is why I added "in software"

I would also never suggest keeping the same product on the shelf, I just think they should wait until they have more improvements that justify a wholle other release. In office's case it would make more sence to release all of the new features in patches, but charge a yearly subscription fee (something like 50-75$/year). they could release a new basic office system included with every new operating system (so it could be something like Office XP, Office Vista. Upgradable to Office Premium Vista or some shit with the subscription) this would be financially smart, give more value to the coustomers, prevent them from prematurely releasing features, people would have more incentive to get their new operating systems, and it would be harder to steal the more current software (as it would be updating online a lot)

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

What they really need, though is a feature that displays the total size of all of the contents in a folder that you can view as one of the columns. I mean, they claim to be the most advanced and powerful operating system available to the public, but they can't even boast the ability to do basic addition. I am sure that anybody would love this feature, especially when trying to clear up some space on their hard drives... but maybe that is just me