MS Announces Beta Testing Schedule!

[Al_Fallujah]

At the very least just tell us how it looks!

[alrot]

Why all this noise? You know very well that if any of you or whoever else chosen for beta testing discovers a whatever defect and this cannot be corrected before the date of publishing... always if it CAN be corrected, just look at FSX... the program will be published anyway uncorrected, sacrificing their customers in the name of the God $. And you can only hope that, at best, a patch (lately, in a rather bombastic mood, renamed service pack) will be scheduled for as soon as they have a little free time. :-?

In a way one could say the real beta testing is made by the first buyers of the thing, who, rather disappointed (and I cannot see why, since they should know that among humans history WANTS to repeats itself, especially the bad parts of it), will make noise and push for said patch to be produced.

And before ANY OF YOU starts calling me defeatist, please look back to the story of all M$ software and please tell me WHERE I am wrong in this estimation.

[quote]You have some serious problems with Microsoft. I honestly don't understand why you are still here if you hate their products so much?

[Steve M]

Someone deep inside the corporate bowels of Microsoft had to sit at the round table with the 'suits' and convince them that a new Flight program can make money. This would be an insightful person that has seen payware developers still making money on FSX and FS9. I do believe Microsoft is targeting the aftermarket profits. Does that make them the bad guy? Frankly speaking, I think that they have the right to pursue profits and capitalize on software that they paid money to produce. We have the right to to choose otherwise because there are alternatives out there. I hope you all get the beta opportunity and after beta is over come back and tell us what you really think. That way some of us won't feel so hoodwinked and will be more informed before purchasing Flight.    

[drtomkat]

Why all this noise? You know very well that if any of you or whoever else chosen for beta testing discovers a whatever defect and this cannot be corrected before the date of publishing... always if it CAN be corrected, just look at FSX... the program will be published anyway uncorrected, sacrificing their customers in the name of the God $. And you can only hope that, at best, a patch (lately, in a rather bombastic mood, renamed service pack) will be scheduled for as soon as they have a little free time. :-?

In a way one could say the real beta testing is made by the first buyers of the thing, who, rather disappointed (and I cannot see why, since they should know that among humans history WANTS to repeats itself, especially the bad parts of it), will make noise and push for said patch to be produced.

And before ANY OF YOU starts calling me defeatist, please look back to the story of all M$ software and please tell me WHERE I am wrong in this estimation.

i respect your opinion and reason for hating something, but you are fooling yourself trying to convince people to follow you.
they are options thats whats great about this country, you could choose, so i asume you have a mac and xplane, i dont want to judge you for hating ms , just keep it to yourself and dont buy their product, i hope you are not depresed.

[Al_Fallujah]

Microsoft has a large market share in operating systems, but they are not a monopoly. Beside Apple/Macintosh, there is a Linux, and AS400, etc.
Use Bing, er, I mean Google, if you want a list. 

There are two sides to the issue though. Microsoft's business tactics to ensure its place, but on the other side is the markets need for standardization. Most businesses use MS Windows and its variants because everyone else does.

If you think if it as part of the infrastructure, businesses and corporations choosing MS just make sense. Just like the plumbing and the electrical in the building, one OS platform is more practical.

If I have specialized plumbing, then all my employee restrooms will have to have customized toilets and sinks. If I choose to have DC electric in my building, every device will have to be specialized, or I buy transformers for everything. If I allow every employee to have different OS's then I need to spend an extra boat load on integration software.

As for the suggestion that every piece of software that they release is buggy, well, that's a matter of opinion.  I used to use MS Money. Was a good little program. Liked it a lot. MS Streets and Trips, and its variant Map Point is a great tool. MS Office is a beast, but its the standard. Even Mac users like it. Personally I use Open Office, because I don't want to pay for Office at home.

But the dirty secret in the software industry is that ALL SOFTWARE has bugs. Old arcade games would crash, or lock up. NASA has had programming bugs on space probes. There are no exceptions.

[SamYeager]

But the dirty secret in the software industry is that ALL SOFTWARE has bugs.

Well said! Another dirty secret is that ALL companies release software with known bugs. Mainly because they just ran out of time to fix them.

Sometimes they will fix them at a later date. Sometimes the bugs are caused by a bad or poorly implemented design and cannot be easily fixed if at all. Does this sound familiar?

[Al_Fallujah]

And sometimes they put off those fixes for later versions all together.

Its a matter of balance between profit and man hours to fix absolutely everything. It cannot be done.


And if MS tried, they would NEVER make money on the MS Flight Sim series, so they would never try in the first place.

[alrot]

the problem gentlemen is that many people are tired because of that in Microsoft Flight Simulator series and especially the one that brought a lot of troubles ....>>>>FSX<<<

I will keep a little bit of faith of the good sense of the people of M$ , because what will happen if they release another software with huge and multiple issues like when FSX came out ,they will absolutely lost all this costumers and trust

[Strategic Retreat]

[quote]You have some serious problems with Microsoft. I honestly don't understand why you are still here if you hate their products so much?

[Al_Fallujah]

But the dirty secret in the software industry is that ALL SOFTWARE has bugs.

And this is the likely excuse we were all waiting it got out. A little like saying that in a hypothetical world of murderers, becoming yourself the TOP murderer is the best way to make things better for all the world and gain the right to go to heaven.

You can call it an excuse. I call it accepting the facts of the technological world we live in. Not sure where you are going with your homicidal illustration, unless you are implying that Microsoft's intent is to publish the buggiest software possible. However, we know that is not true. But we accept that MS software has bugs, as does everyone else's.

Brandon was not changing the subject. You opened the conversation to all Microsoft products in an earlier post. Brandon was only trying to say that yes MS has published some crap versions of software, but has generally made up for it in later releases.

Don't think he was going anywhere else with it, but I will let him speak for himself.

[Al_Fallujah]

Look, you don't like Microsoft. We get it. I don't think anyone here is trying to convince you to like them. But this site has a fan base that uses this product series. So using every post to bash the publisher gets a little weary. And wild accusations, like being a front for Microsoft, is a little crazy.

As illustration: Why would they use a site as a front that gives away FREE downloads in the form of planes and scenery. This site has done that for years.

If this site was an MS front, some bean counter at MS would have found a way to make uber-bucks off of it several years ago.

Further, why would we have portions of the site that talk about other companies products? See the pages in The Cage. Or a new forum on Flight Gear. And what about IL Sturmovik? You think MS would allow that on their sites?

I know American's are prone to conspiracy theories. Is that a problem over there too?

[Al_Fallujah]

One more thing.  Since you think we are not allowed to talk bad about MS.....

'Microsoft Bob' SUCKED!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob



So did 'Windows ME'. Buggy as hell. It was a joke.

Feel better?

[Strategic Retreat]

Look, you don't like Microsoft. We get it.

No.

You (as in singular, given I speak to YOU who moved this accusation, and not to OTHERS) do not quite get it, even if you THINK you do. Did you ever hear me talking trash of Windows (Vista aside, which received ALL the success it deserved)? Of Office? Of Whatever Else Have You?

I do not dislike M$, or I would be using Linux right now.

What I dislike, and here the word "dislike" magically becomes an euphemism, is that M$ is, with Flight especially, striving to become one step more Apple-like, with the never denied voices of closed market for add-ons and still no words about freeware.

Apple... now THAT is something for which my hatred is blackest than a politician's heart. No words I know in English nor other language can aptly convey the depth of my loathing for Apple... for what M$ is trying to become like.

Apple I hate. Not M$.

If I talk bad of M$, here and elsewhere, is in my own way to convey that not all M$ are happy at whatever they do and choose. I will NOT become one with the majority, if said majority is allowing for something I despise to happen with a printed smile on their photocopied faces. So I try. I try to desperately discourage M$ to become like the think I hate for real.

When M$ will be like Apple, THEN AND NOT BEFORE, I will hate M$...

And they're really putting themselves behind this wretched intent. And I really am NOT happy with it.

Even if my words are desperate at best and have less than zero chance to succeed moving them to step away from that accursed path... with this attempt at least in the end I WILL be justified to feel hate for something that was good in its own way, and had WANTED DESPERATELY to mimicry THE WORST and become EVEN WORSE.

And, should that happen, I will be not a bit happy in the end, let me tell you.

I still hope, though. A proverb hereabout says that Hope is the last thing to die... I just hope it won't die howling in despair.

And with this I don't want to talk about it anymore.

[todayshorse]

Fascinating! I cant say i love apple but i do love my imac. Despite the fact i run windows 7 on it. Its a beautiful machine and if it wasnt for the fact i want to use FSX id have a microsoft free house. But i do.

[pete]

Any tendancy to try to keep apps/addons 'in house' is a big mistake.  Short term success maybe but will be long term failure once the 'masses' get over the novelty factor ... 

One reason I also avoid Apple. (brilliant in many ways but I never buy into any controlled marketplace product as it restricts choice and is very unhealthy for a society)

Will wait 'n see about the Amazon Kindle .... but they'll bow to pressure as they have good connection with the market.

Let's really ... really .. hope MSFlight does not try to go down the 'in house' route where addons are controlled in any way by them  ...

FS thrived to record breaking levels ONLY because it could be openly and freely added to .. Yes we now live in a different world in many ways ... but the essential is still there ...