Why don't they finally stick with something?!
I realize that this is a matter of opinion but I think that Microsoft has some pretty impressive and useful technologies in their portfolio. For example; a full VBA engine underneath their Office environment; it combines the easily accessible BASIC language and combines it with a pretty slick OO based model allowing you pretty much to glue your Office needs together.
Microsoft also has a problem: usually when they start out with something then it's not always state of the art. I don't think I have to come up with examples; we all know our own Microsoft horror stories. However, it's also fair to say that Microsoft has shown the drive and the skills to turn things around. Drastically. Turning something utter shite into something very useful. I know, I know: matter of opinion.
But here's the thing I fail to get: once they managed to reach that point then they usually abandon their stuff all together. Example? Well, how about Expression Web and Expression Design. An environment made for website development combined with vector graphics support. People familiar with the Dreamweaver / Fireworks combination would feel right at home. I've used Expression Web 4 professional myself, even paid for it, and it was very useful. It allowed me solid HTML design but also provided a bit of programming features.
And there came Visual Studio 2012, which had pretty horrendous start itself. Yet it was still determined that it should replace Expression Web effectively replacing a tool fully aimed at web development with a tool aimed at general development. It was horrid at first, but they did come around. My point: why throw away a working environment in exchange for something not even complete?
You see this all over the place. .NET anyone? For years they pushed .NET forward as the de-facto standard for programming on Windows. Then we got the mobility fever and wham: it had to be replaced / enhanced with a Javascript engine out of all things. Something else? Windows 7: an extremely popular operating system, for many a true replacement for XP. Instead of pushing it to its limits: no, we're going to re-invent the wheel with Windows 8 (disaster) and then Windows 10 (which still has to proof itself).
The problem is that they're fracturing their own market up to such extremes that it's hard to keep up, let alone making sure that you really want to invest in whatever is hip right now because chances are always high that it can get dumped and replaced with something else anytime.
And here is yet another example... There was Frontpage, which I agree wasn't exactly very good. Then we got Sharepoint which showed some pretty serious potential, still had its quirks of course but it mixed pretty good into their Office suite. And so here we are: lets dump it and move on. Even though Sharepoint has come such a long way and is a pretty solid environment right now.
Why can't they stick with their own program for a change and back it up with everything they have?