[MacSpirit] Protesting Microsoft's 'innovation'

by Rodney O. Lain

2/15/00

It's what any true Mac partisan would do: go on a self-imposed 'Microsoft fast' in response to the Redmond monopoly's final straw

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude

Frederick Douglass

 

Can the world ever be... Microsoft free?

taken from an anti-Microsoft web site

 

It was inevitable, I must admit.

Ever since the day that our paths first crossed, I had been inexorably drawn towards this moment of renunciation, my gut-reaction moment marking the culmination of weeks -- yea, months -- of doubting the evidence of my senses.

Yep, I am uninstalling Microsoft Internet Explorer from my Macintosh PowerBook G3.

It was a long time coming. That damned piece of software continually crashed my system with unexplainable, show-stopping system freezes that forced me to either restart my computer or to launch Netscape Communicator in order to resume web surfing. Sometimes I had no choice but to reboot.

Couple this with my shame-stricken conscience from having used "enemy software" for so long, and you get a prerequisite for a bona fide Microsoft exorcism, starting with the browser and going on to include the entire Office suite, as well as the Outlook Express e-mail client.

But the above isn't the main reason that I've decided to make my computer Microsoft free. It has more to do with the latest in a long line of Microsoft "innovations": the introduction of their kids-related internet service. You may want to go and read it. Sounds familiar? It should.

For some reason, it pissed me off to see them make such a bold-faced annoucement, acting as if they'd hung the moon with their non-innovative innovation. (I know, I know: it can be argued that their internet service is not really a cheap imitation of Apple's iReview, et al. Regardless, for some reason, that was the final straw, and it prompted my vow to rid myself of anything made by Microsoft.

Okay, benefit of the doubt granted

But there is no benefit of the doubt given for Microsoft's me-too announcement last month of a QuickTime-esque "brushed metal" GUI to appear their next version of Windows Media Player.

How about some originality, guys? Good grief.

This was the final straw. I felt that I should stop using the imitation and go use the original. Hence, I have no choice but to shop around for viable alternatives.

It seems tough to wean oneself from MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer). Sure, the program has got some good looking aspects (nice interface and feature set, Sherlock interactivity). It feels good (when I surf the web). It's appears to have some leg up Netscape (speed, stability, etc.). I'm even running the beta of IE 5 for the Mac at work. In short, I had a hard time giving it up. But I want to make a statement in the form of a one-person boycott: I believe that too much intimacy with and dependence upon Microsoft is dangerous, from a consumer's perspective -- the same way that it isn't good for crack addicts to put total trust in their pusher ("first you give it to them; then, when they're hooked, you charge 'em for it").

People say that "resistance is futile." Well, kicking the MS habit is a "mutha," too. The first few days without Internet Explorer (the first of my many just-removed Borg implants) weren't as bad as Microsoft wants you to believe. The nervous tick isn't as noticeable as it was initially. The "shakes" and night sweats have dissipated. So I must press on, undaunted, undeterred. Right now, I'm deciding between using Netscape Communicator 4.7 or the latest beta of iCab (be sure to bone up on your German before surfing over to iCab's home page). iCab seems promising. Netscape appears fat and lazy after the one-two punch of an AOL acquisition and Microsoft's having won the "browser wars."

Meanwhile, there's Outlook Express to contend with. I've done time with Eudora and feel it's time to give someone else a chance. The fine folks over at CE Software were willing to oblige and were kind enough to give me a copy of their QuickMail Pro e-mail client.

So far, so good.

The most tenacious Borg implant of them all

Then there's Microsoft Office. That conglomeration of code isn't easy to replace. So far there are only two heirs to that throne, in my opinion. The up-and-comer is Sun's StarOffice productivity suite. Not yet ready for prime time (esp. for Mac users), it holds promise. Meanwhile, I waited excitedly for AppleWorks 6. After seeing a first-hand demo at Macworld -- and playing with a copy I saw recently -- I'm ready to throw away MS Office -- for good.

No looking back

On one hand, I hesitate going through with this because I'm too lazy to uninstall my Microsoft stuff (I'm wondering if that's the main reason Microsoft maintains its marketshare: people hate using Microsoft products, but are too lazy to switch to something else). But I'm forging ahead, slothfulness be damned. In thisi case, my sloth is only surpassed by my desire to rid myself of any Redmond presence in my Applications folder.

The resultant cognitive dissonance is frustrating: Yes, I know Netscape is a memory slop when compared to MSIE; but since when must logic dictate which software application that I use? Windows users use the same fuzzy logic all the time with their OS choice, so, I have precedent from which to argue.

For me, this is, more than anything, a matter of GP -- General Principle. I have more than a mere moral argument in defense of my actions. I want to prove that it can be done. I want to be proud of the fact that my computer pays no "use" tax to Microsoft. They will have to earn my customer loyalty. They will have to produce products so good that I'll have not choice but to switch back. Or, they will have to gain my loyalty the same way they've won everyone else's loyalty: kill every other competitor in the market. Either that, or get used to suffering a loudmouth columnist continually telling the world how good it feels to rid of them.

Stay tuned. This drama is far from over.

Fini.

This column is © 2000 Rodney O. Lain. All rights reserved.

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About Rodney O. Lain

A former journalist and college prof, Rodney lives in Minnesota, where he freelance writes part-time and works full-time as a supervisor at a major internet-related company. He has a soft spot for H. L. Mencken, Steve Jobs, Prince, Richard Wright and other well-known status-quo breakers.

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November 22, 2008