Microsoft killed my Pappy - Scott Hanselman's Blog

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2022-06-22 17:00:09

I was talking to a young (<25) Front End Developer recently who actively hated Microsoft. Sometimes I meet folks that are actively pissed or sometimes ambivalent. But this dude was pissed.

The ones I find the most interesting are the "Microsoft killed my Pappy" people, angry with generational anger. My elders hated Microsoft so I hate them. Why? Because, you wronged me.

"You killed my pappy," said the youth, "and my pappy's pappy. And his pappy's pappy. And my brothers Jethro, Hank, Hoss, Red, Peregrine, Marsh, Junior, Dizzy, Luke, Peregrine, George and all the others. I'm callin' you out, lawman."

One person said that he was still mad about the Microsoft Anti-Trust thing. "Hey, 10 years ago Microsoft did this..." That was initiated in 1998 for actions in 1994. That's 20 years ago.  And for bundling a browser in the operating system that couldn't be uninstalled or easily replaced? Sure, no operating systems do that in 2014. I wonder if I can swap out Chrome from Chrome OS or Mobile Safari in iOS. Point is, it's common now.

This "generational technology pain" seems to persist long after the root causes have died. Do I hate Japan for World War II? My 6 year old wanted to know this as he's learning world history. I said, "No, we're cool with Japan. We've done some good stuff together." And he was like, "Cool." 

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