>> Arguably this is why most M$ products aren't useful to experts. Almost 
>> every M$ product I've seen to date is designed around the assumption 
>> that the person using it is too stupid to operate a complex machine 
>> and must therefore be prevented from doing certain things.
> 
> Huh?  SQL Server is very nice and powerful. Their IDEs are some of the 
> best out there. Their latest compiler technology is in front of most 
> other people. You can code Excel and Word in .NET and pull data out of 
> spreadsheets to make charts, and take data off of Word forms and stick 
> it into a database, all without any programming.
> 
> Hell, their word processor is powerful enough to have macros that are 
> viruses.
> 
> How is that "too stupid to operate a complex machine"?

Uhuh. And now open Word, type a few sentences, apply some minimal 
formatting to it, and behold as an animated paperclip pops up and says 
"Hey! That looks like you're trying to type a letter! Are you so 
retarded that you can't figure out how to do that properly all by 
yourself, or should I just **** off and let you get on with what you 
were trying to do in the first place?"

Open up Access and ask to create a new database. A helpful wizard offers 
to generate a CD indexing database for you automatically. Because, you 
know, you might be too stupid to work out how to create a few tables all 
by yourself, after all.

(I presume - indeed, I deeply *hope* - that SQL Server at least manages 
to assume that anybody who can afford to spent tens of thousands of 
dollars on a database product doesn't need any help issuing a few SQL 
commands...)

Similarly, there is apparently no way for a knowledgable system 
administrator like myself to install and configure a copy of Windows. 
You *must* sit through the cutesy helpy-helper wizards and struggle to 
make it do what you want, not what M$ wants. (E.g., there is no way to 
avoid creating a local user account in the Administrators group with 
auto-login unless you add the machine to a domain during the setup 
process. WTF?)

Stuff like that.

Sure, some of their products do allow you to do some fairly powerful 
stuff. Good luck finding it though. Unfortunately, the assumption most 
of their products make is that the person operating the machine is an idiot.

(I'm sure Warp can give you a long speech about how all these helpful 
auto-adaptive "features" actually make it *harder* to learn to use the 
software for yourself. HCI experts have been saying it for decades...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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