Ask Paul: June 22 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and happy summer too. Here are some answers to this week’s questions.

Google still hates Microsoft

jblank46 asks:

Something you mentioned on one of the podcasts a while back stuck with me. You said that Google, Apple and Amazon would do anything to keep Microsoft down or something to that effect. I know Microsoft is sometimes their own worst enemy but have always believed Google systematically tried to keep Microsoft down while at the same time built their platform dominance utilising Microsoft platforms. I have not seen anyone else address this topic directly so care to elaborate your thoughts more on this?

Are you referring to Google building its ad empire on web ads that run/ran through browsers largely on Microsoft Windows? If so, that, at least, isn’t directly predatory: It makes sense, given that Windows was the center of the personal computing world.

But I do think that Google’s animosity towards Microsoft is a byproduct of that era, for sure. Microsoft then, like Apple today, was infamous for stealing the best ideas from its competitors while using “FUD” to keep them down. And it had killed dozens of erstwhile competitors in the past, from WordPerfect to Borland to Lotus and many others.

But I think it was Microsoft’s final act as belligerent monopolist that scared Google the most: Microsoft was able to destroy Netscape and its nascent “web as a platform” strategy by making its own browser and then integrating it and other web technologies directly into Windows. And there was ample evidence to suggest, that as Google got bigger and bigger, that Microsoft would do the same to it.

Google is a weird company. But I think its desire to diversify its product line so dramatically was, in the beginning, a hedge against the classic single-product dilemma (if Search ever died, it could collapse) and against the one company (Microsoft) that was in a position to hobble its efforts. After all, Microsoft could very easily do to Google Search what it did to uncountable competitors in the past, and make its product work more poorly on Windows. Which was the world’s gateway to personal technology.

The thing that bothers me about Google today is that they’re still copying Microsoft at every possible level, and it almost seems spiteful. More to the point, Google today is the gateway to the Internet, and its potential to harm or bias the world’s personal computing experiences is so much more vast than Microsoft’s ever was.

The future of Windows

wolters asks:

How do you feel about the current state and future of Windows? After //Build/, it was obvious that Windows is no longer the show runner. And about that time, many of us Microsoft fans were left wondering if it was even worth investing in anymore. Since //Build/, it seems like Windows is being mentioned more often that not and we are about to head into back to school and then the rumored Surface Refresh. Was just wondering if your outlook on Windows fluctuates as much as mine does. I own a Pixelbook that is screaming to be my daily PC but I just can’t do it…..yet.

I think we’re coming from the same place. And for reasons I can’t quite explain, I do feel this stuff very personally. I think I wrote this in one of my post-Myerson articles, but if not, I’m sure what I’ve written since that event collectively reads like a cry for help or some form of ongoing therapy.

Put simply, I’m a classic case of not being able to take my own advice. Which in this case amounts to not taking this personally and coming to grips with the reality of the market. We can pine for some future that will never happen or just get on with life.

Anyway, yes, my outlook on Windows certainly goes up and down. I do feel that Microsoft is, if a bit too aggressively for my tastes, taking steps to embrace its real future and downplay a product (Windows) that is well past its prime. And that, despite my preferences, pretending that every Windows 10 feature update is worth celebrating is silly. It’s moving on. I’m trying. But I still care far more about Windows, and about PCs, than I do about other personal technologies. And I find little of interest in Macs and Linux. Chromebooks could get interesting, but as you note, it’s not quite there yet for me either.

The issue here, ultimately, is uncertainty. Microsoft is moving aggressively, but the way it communicates what it is doing is haphazard and often contradictory. I can’t stand uncertainty, in fact, it’s perhaps my biggest pet peeve in life. In this case, I wish Microsoft would just be honest about what it’s doing and then just do it.

Call of Duty, ranked

simont asks:

Rank your Favorite Call of Duty Game from Most Favorite to Least Favorite and Why. Also Fortnite or PUBG?

So, the Call of Duty thing is a more complex question than you may understand. 🙂

Regarding the second, easier question, neither is ideal right now: I prefer PUBG as a game, but it performs terribly on Xbox and is essentially unplayable as a result. If PUGB looked/ran like Fornite, I’d probably play that game.

OK, Call of Duty.

The issue here is that, as these games evolved, the way I played them evolved too. In the beginning, I was all about the single-player experience, but sometime around the first Modern Warfare, I switched to being more multiplayer-centric. I never even finished the Black Ops III or Infinite Warfare single-player campaigns, and for some I did finish, like Advanced Warfare and Ghosts, I couldn’t have cared less.

I briefly considered rating single- and multiplayer separately as they are, realistically speaking, really just different games that are packaged together (and now, in most cases, with zombies and other games/game modes). But that would get really complex.

So… let’s see. This can’t/won’t be exact, but…

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3/Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (tie). These games had excellent single-player campaigns and multiplayer. This was the high-water mark.
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Yes, I hated the single-player campaign, but I probably played this game online more than any other. And it proves that wall-running and jetpacks can work.
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Excellent single-player, but the multiplayer was basically the same as COD2 but with load-outs. Great maps, but not as much customization as with the sequels.
4. Call of Duty: WWII. Good single-player and top-notch multiplayer.
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. A big improvement over the first BO.
6. Call of Duty: Ghosts. This one is unfairly maligned. It’s one of my favorites, still, for multiplayer.
7. Call of Duty 2. This was the game that got me off of PC gaming. Classic single-player campaign and good multiplayer (if not very customizable).
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops. Surprisingly lackluster graphically, but a good-enough story and strong multiplayer.
9. Call of Duty. I played this one back on the PC. The single-player campaign was strong.
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Terrible single-player. Uninteresting multiplayer.
11. Call of Duty 3. This one was really buggy. Single-player and multiplayer were both just OK.
12. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. This is where COD kind of jumped the shark. Both single-player and multiplayer were uninteresting to me. This year, I just replayed older COD games instead.

I feel like I could really go on and on about this one. I am trying not to. 🙂

Now I’m going to think about rating multiplayer levels…

Docking stations

North of 49th asks:

Do you ever get to test docking stations? I know that you said recently Lenovo offered a pick of laptops to test but I wondered if, for example, they offered their new side connector docking station as an option? What is your opinion of cost/benefit if you are able to keep the laptop for 5+ years from a work flow perspective?

I haven’t, but I can ask. I will ask Lenovo about this since their docking connection solution is so interesting. But just a standard USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 dock is of interest too, and I could just pick one up.

My wife does use a USB-C (not TB3) docking station with her own laptop, but I’ve not really ever done that. And not for any great reason: The PC I’m using now just has integrated graphics, and it’s not like it’s more powerful than a typical laptop.

For me, the advantage of having everything on the one PC is somewhat mitigated by the fact that everything important is syncing between multiple PCs anyway. But I get why people do this, for sure.

Promo photos

Tiny asks:

I like the photos you use on your site and assume that you subscribe to a download service. Could you share where you get them?

Yes, we actually do pay for some service, but I looked at it once and never used it again. I use Pixabay instead: The photos are usually marked as “free for commercial use and don’t require any attribution, so they are perfect for my needs. And they usually have something excellent for any search.

Some examples of photos I’ve gotten from this service can be found here, here, and here.

I also use my own photos a lot, too. Like here, here, and here. And product shots from the companies we write about, etc.