98% of the "applications" on sourceforge are garbage, sorta like 98% of the "applications" Microsoft puts out are garbage. People whine all the time about how much crap software there is for Windows...then use equally crap or WORSE crap on Linux. At first, this strange phenomenon didn't make sense, but then I realized that the Linux crowd has this strange need for justification coupled with the typical "well at least it isn't Microsoft" retort. This has resulted in a long long stream of substandard Linux applications that people simply "accept" because it's Linux. How long did it take to get a decent replacement for GiMP, for example? 10 years or so? Sheesh. Now, I'm not a Microsoft fan or anything, what I am is realistic...it makes zero sense to go harping on Microsoft for making shit software when barely anyone outside of Microsoft can make it right either.
There are so many alternatives to both open source, and MS that its mind boggling. Its not the either-or situation you make it out to be whatsoever. MS software honestly isn't that good. Using the OS makes sense (even though it sucks) for various reasons, but why anyone would use the stupidly feature heavy MS Office to type a letter is beyond me. Nobody, anywhere, uses even 1/4 the features that huge beast offers. Then there is Media Player, which sucks, but not as bad as the wmv format itself. WTF makes people to this day still encode videos in this suck format? Despite having pretty much the same sort of quality/size attributes as other formats, it seems to hit the CPU twice as hard to actually play a WMV movie. Also, skipping through the movie with the scrubber is laggy, and often causes playback to f*ck up untill you restart the program. Then there is the scan tool I use at work (a Honda dealership) that runs on WinCE and crashes all the time. Then there is the WinXP Embedded based ATM that my old bank uses. I actually switched to another bank because the only ATM they have in town is out of order at least 1/3 of the time I try to use it, and I can't make it there during business hours. Compare this to the old AS400 ATMs that never break down until there is a failure of a physical part like a receipt printer or something.
The only good piece of software I've ever used from MS is Fortza Motorsport for XBox, and MS's game division is the one I avoid more than any other. MS has no expertise in games whatsoever, they merely decided (as mega corporations routinely do) than the money Sony was making from the business was in fact money that MS was losing. So MS enters the business, loses more money than it took to bring down Sega, SNK, and anyone else you can name combined, and in this race to the bottom now Sony isn't making any money either.
MS, honestly, isn't good at anything, at least not anything I've been exposed to, and every day they are looking to new businesses they can dominate with their mediocrity. I will not give my cash to people that are really bad at their jobs just out of some base capitalistic respect/worship for all the money they have.
