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Microsoft can't be ordered to care about its customers. But it can be forced to recall its buggy software. If it can't fix the software, Microsoft should be required to pay another company to do it.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Microsoft cutting support for older versions of Windows

Will this force you to buy XP? Or does it mean more of the same old game?


Dec. 16, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Post Standard

   Microsoft is cutting the cord on older versions of Windows.
   At the end of December, Microsoft is eliminating paid support for Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5. Consumers and businesses needing advanced support will be on their own and will no longer be able to pay Microsoft for on-call assistance. Microsoft's searchable Web pages will be the only source of official help and advice.
   Official support for MS-DOS, the older, non-Windows operating system from Microsoft, also will be cut off at the same time.
   Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 will lose their support at the end of June 2003.
   Even Windows 2000, which has recently won a lot of attention for its stability and power, will be cut off at the end of March 2004. Microsoft is also likely to drop paid support for Windows Millennium (Windows Me) at the same time.
   Microsoft is eliminating paid support for older operating systems in an attempt to increase sales of its latest operating system, Windows XP, especially among corporate customers. Businesses often stick with old computers much longer than typical consumers do.
   Cutting support this month for Windows 95, which is still used in millions of small offices, and Windows NT 3.5, a common "industrial" version of Windows, could force many businesses and institutions into expensive upgrades that would require new computers, not just new software. Windows XP can't run on most older PCs.
    This would increase the upgrade costs from about $200 for software alone to about $1,500 to $2,000 for software and hardware.
   Advocates of the Linux operating system, which is available free or at little cost, say Microsoft's decision to cut support could prompt some businesses to switch to Linux. Some consumers might also consider switching to Apple's Macintosh computers, which generally cost less to operate over the long term than Windows PCs.
   Anyone who has watched Microsoft's behavior for as long as I have might interpret the company's decision as little more than monopolistic bullying.
   But we need to look carefully at Microsoft's announcement. At a time when Microsoft is trying hard to clean up its image in its federal court case, it is also trying hard to make everyone believe it cares about customers.
   This could be a problem. Microsoft's customer support has been universally poor. It has a reputation of ignoring bugs and design flaws in modern versions of Windows, and it has left some functions of Windows unfinished, for no discernable reason. (Try, for example, to print a directory list from Windows.)
   Those who don't know Microsoft well might mistake the company's announcement. They might assume that Microsoft is just being a bully, that it is simply trying to get its customers to buy new versions of Windows by scaring them into abandoning old versions.
   But I see this differently.
   I think Microsoft is afraid of a federal court settlement that would force it to pay money as a punishment for its monopolistic practices. The company hopes it can get the judge in its court case to go along with its proposal to give old PCs and Microsoft software to poor school districts. But that plan appears doomed. The judge could order Microsoft to give money -- billions of dollars, perhaps -- to those schools instead.
    So the company's last, best hope might be to pose as the same old bad guy -- the bad guy that many love to hate -- while slipping into a new suit of clothes. The new duds are supposed to make Microsoft look like the Maytag repairman, like the guy who is always ready to fix its new software as long as we don't mind the fact that he can't also waste his time fixing the old software.
   The federal judge overseeing Microsoft's antitrust-related class-action lawsuits, Judge J. Frederick Motz, probably won't be fooled. State officials who are leading their suits against Microsoft probably won't be fooled.
   We won't be fooled, either, as long as we see this gambit for what it is. Microsoft never fixed the old software and never properly supported the old software. Dropping paid support for the old software means Microsoft is telling us what we already know -- that it doesn't care.
   Microsoft, often criticized for having the worst customer support in the world of software, says it's going to cut off that bad support.
    Microsoft, ridiculed for years because it cannot get the bugs out of its programs, is telling us it won't support the software it can't fix.
   What's wrong with this picture? When will we wake up and see what's really happening?
   Microsoft could do one thing to win our confidence. It could fix Windows. General Motors, Ford, Toyota and all the other automobile manufacturers routinely recall bad vehicles. Firestone, as Ford Explorer owners know too well, has been recalling bad tires. The company that made my bicycle issued a recall last fall.
   Why should software be any different? Why shouldn't the world's wealthiest software company own up to its responsibilities and do something that would actually fix the Windows problem?
   Of course, you and I should already know the answer. But it's not, as you might be saying to yourself, that Microsoft won't own up to what it has to do.
   No, the answer is that we won't. We won't demand it. In the many months since I first demanded that Microsoft recall Windows, no one else in the press has stepped forward to join me. At first I thought it was a question of guts. Or, more accurately, a question of no guts.
   But that's not what the problem is. We, the public, let Microsoft get away with this - we keep buying Microsoft software, keep choosing Windows PCs each time we buy new computers, keep losing our Saturdays to Windows reinstallations. We keep looking the other way when Microsoft absorbs its competitors.
   We're fooling ourselves.
   Microsoft is just doing what it's always done. And, alas, so are we.
   Isn't it time for a change? Microsoft can't be ordered to care about its customers. No judge can do that. But it can be forced to recall its buggy software. If it can't fix the software, Microsoft should be required to pay another company to do it. The idea that Windows is so bad that it can't be fixed is nonsense.
   Shoddy products don't belong in an America at war. At a time when we need the best we can produce, Microsoft has no excuse. It should fix the versions of Windows that crash and burn.
   Telling us it no longer supports them is not acceptable.