Why I Hate Microsoft

I couldn’t put it better than Pierre Igot has. Microsoft’s lack of attention to detail with user interface design is so thorough it’s quite mind-boggling. (I remember methodically going through Word for Windows 2.0’s menus and finding that the commands in each menu adhered to different interface conventions. Marvellous.)

There was a great article in the New Yorker a few years back (by Louis Menand, their chief pedant) about how Microsoft Word seems to be designed to prevent anyone from adhering to any respectable style guide. (Actually it was a diatribe against Word masquerading as a review of the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.)

The first thing I do with a new installation of Word is fix the incredibly stupid autocorrect settings which prevent, for example, users from typing (c) (which is replaced by ©). I’ve never even tried to fix its idiotic, non-standard keyboard shortcuts, but command-G would definitely be top of my list.

Thanks to John Gruber at Daring Fireball for the first link.