It is the nature of giant bureaucracies to coerce and control the populations they "serve." Giant bureaucracies also tend to resist change, protect themselves at all cost, operate with laughable inefficiency, and become increasingly disconnected from their supposed mission. This is true whether the bureaucracy is a government agency (illustrated on a small, local scale by the wonderful movie Still Mine)
or a software company. When the bureaucracies are giant software companies, the coercion is often masked in a sickly-sweet cover story about trying to help you, or assuring that things happen with high quality, which just rubs it in.
I recently ran into an example of this with Microsoft. I was trying to play WMA (Windows Media Audio) files that I had created for my own use from CD's I had purchased. In other words, I was trying to do something I should have been able to do.
Why CD's? I had bought them a long time ago, why should I purchase them again digitally when it's legal to create a personal digital copy. Why WMA? At the time, it was technically slightly better than the MP3 easily available to me.
The Random House example (apologies to Random House)
Imagine I had bought a paper book years ago. Now I was trying to open it to re-read a section. When I tried to open it, it won't open! The book was stuck, and there was a knock on my apartment door. There's a loud voice coming from outside: "Open up! Open up! This is Random House!" OMG! What's this about? I can't open my old book, and suddenly some publisher is pounding at my door??
I go to the door, open it, and there's a couple scary-looking guys. They say, "We understand you're trying to open a Random House book. Before you open it, we need to verify that you have the right to do so."
I say, "What do you mean? IT'S MY BOOK! I BOUGHT IT! I'VE OWNED IT FOR YEARS! WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO POUND ON MY DOOR AND QUESTION ME?"
They reply, "We're Random House. We're the publishers. You may think you own this book, but we're the publishers. How do we know you own the book legally? We've got to make sure you have the proper rights for this book. Until we receive that assurance, you will not be able to open the book you claim to own."
"OK," I say guardedly. "What do I have to do to convince you I own the book I own?"
"It's simple. Just replace all your phones and your phone service with Random House's. Then our book will be able to call our office and make sure you have the rights you say you have."
"I've heard about the Random House telephone service. It's really crappy. It's full of static. That's why fewer people use it every month, even though it's free. Even worse, crooks have figured out how to use it to see when I'm not home, so they can break in and steal my stuff. If you insanely want to somehow have the book you published be able to 'phone home,' why not just use the phones I've already got, which work great?"
"They're not Random House phones. We can't guarantee their quality or appropriateness. Random House books only work with Random House phones. You can say what you want -- but we say that we put our name on it and we stand behind them -- and they're the only phones we'll use."
I get the message. I kick myself for being so deluded that I thought buying a book from Random House was a good idea. There's no way I'm trading my secure phones for ones that practically fly a flag to alert all the criminals in the area when the house is vulnerable. I hand the book that I bought and paid for, but which I cannot use, to the agents from Random House, and dis-invite them from my house.
Microsoft and WMA
This is what Microsoft did, acting just like the imagined Random House of my example.
I tried to play my WMA file. It wouldn't play. Instead, just like the agents from Random house pounding on my door, I get this:
Note the copyright, literally ten years ago! Tens of thousands of supposedly super-bright programmers, and they can't manage to keep things up to date?
They "don't support" my web browser, which (on this machine) is Firefox. They insist on using IE, which is of course their own browser. Whose utilization has plummetted from over two-thirds in 2009 to about the same as Firefox last year.
Why do I care? First of all, they shouldn't care. It's outrageous that they do. Second, here's one reason among many why I care:
I might as well fly a flag from my house saying "hey, all crooks in the area, c'mon over, the pickin's are good!" And this isn't the first time -- IE is famous for being about the most inept, dangerous-to-use browser in existence. Imagine, a free product with a plummeting market share!
Conclusion
This experience didn't teach me anything I didn't already know. Microsoft isn't unique. It's like every other giant, bumbling bureaucracy: it's an elephant, we're mice, and you'd better look smart and be careful or you'll get crushed. But somehow, when your nose gets rubbed in it, and they effectively steal something from you from your own house (computer), and there's nothing you can do about, I at least get aggravated in spite of myself.
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