It just hit me: it's now been an entire week since Microsoft last screwed up in any major way. Mazel tov!
Online articles are still have plenty of bad to offer, of course; the #upgradegate narrative of Redmond's GWX tactics is still echoing across sites that are only now catching up to a story that's been unfolding for months, mainly because the Associated Press has started reporting on criticism of Microsoft, rather than simply reprinting Redmond's press releases. Teri Goldstein’s $10,000 win is still being mentioned as if it had happened yesterday, rather than having first been reported weeks ago. The stink of what Microsoft has done will continue to linger in Windows 10's wake for a long time to come.
Still, on balance, it looks like Microsoft may have done just enough to weather the storm. With #upgradegate stories being replaced with hype for the upcoming Anniversary Update's features, Redmond may have managed to manage their backlash, for now. I await the end-of-July market share numbers with some ineterest, though; it'll be interesting to see if Windows 7 posts a third straight monthly market share increase, or if Linux can repeat last month's growth, even while Windows 10 manages to squeeze out another percentage point from Windows 8 and XP users.
In the meantime, though, I think I can finally move on to other things.
When I started this blog, I really didn't intend for it to become a non-stop anti-Microsoft crusade. I was planning to talk about games: the ones I was playing, the ones I stopped playing (and why), and trends in videogames and gaming technology. "Never 10" sentiment took over this blog out of a sense of obligation; I felt compelled to record Microsoft's race to the ethical bottom, and my thoughts about it all. And, quite frankly, I still resent the hell out of Microsoft for making that feel so necessary. It will be a long, long time before I'll be able to trust Microsoft again.
And, no, I haven't done the dual-boot Linux thing yet, either, mainly out of laziness. I still haven't switched to Windows 10, either, and I still don't plan to, unless I have to. When there's some game that I simply must have, that performs so much better in DirectX 12 that I also simply must buy $350 (CAD) of new graphics card to play it... well, at that point, I'll decide whether it's also worth $250 (CAD) for a new OS. So far, there's nothing coming that would convince me to spend that kind of money on upgrades.