WHY I DEEPLY REGRET BUYING MICRO$OFT FRONTPAGE 2002 AFTER MY NIGHTMARES WITH FRONTPAGE 98From the very beginning, during the installation of FrontPage 98, I had problems installing the Microsoft Personal Web Server. This is an essential component for a one-person/one computer approach to developing and maintaining a web site - especially for a person with my limited level of expertise. However, after installing the Personal Web Server with detailed tech support, this Web Server component strangely vanished from my hard drive. Over the process of completely importing my large web site into FrontPage 98, upgrading it and posting it to the web, I required more very involved technical support to reinstall the Personal Web Server. There is no question in my mind, after a detailed study of this situation, that faulty software by Microsoft is behind the problem.
When the FP Personal Web Server disappears, I cannot access my web pages to update or add to them. As a one-person business, I depend on my web site because it makes the difference on whether I make a living. Two weeks ago, I bought FrontPage 2002, but I left it in the box because I was fearful that it would not solve my problems. I researched my problem and possible solutions throughout the World Wide Web, including the Microsoft "support" site, to the wee hours.
Finally, trusting that Microsoft would have resolved the server problem in the FrontPage 2002 Upgrade, I opened the box to install the product. I was shocked at the new level to which Microsoft has fallen! First, although the "System Requirements" specifications on the outside of the box indicated that my Windows 98-2 OS met the requirements for use of the software, MICROSOFT LIED ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX! At the very beginning of the meager, almost comic-book sized manual, Micro$oft informed me that some of those nice new upgrade features, like the FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions and the new SharePoint Team Services, require newer versions of Windows OS (excluding Me) to work. So, I am faced with the additional considerable expense of having to upgrade my OS - or I cannot use what I paid for based upon the claims on the outside of the box! Nowhere, in my research of this product, have I come up with these limitations. Additionally, the mini-manual (Microsoft Press sells the full manual) informs me that I must use the FrontPage 98 Personal Web Server with 2002, since I have not upgraded to the later operating system.
The problem is - I HAVE NO FRONTPAGE PERSONAL WEB SERVER! It disappeared again, with no clue to me as to how or why. I have already been through at least three complicated re-installations, requiring tech support and the disappearing problem has yet to be fixed. The FrontPage experts outside Microsoft tell me they gave up on the faulty server a long time ago, but they have other options given their expertise and resources for building and testing web pages. Remember, I am a one-person, one computer operation. With my configuration, I cannot access my web page files on the computer! When I called yet again for tech support, Microsoft told me that they no longer provide any type of unpaid support for the "older" FrontPage 98 product - regardless of its recurring faulty web server problems. This was IN SPITE of the fact that the 98 web server was required with installation (with claimed free support) of the FrontPage 2002 product. I bought an "upgrade" that didn't upgrade the most essential component I upgraded for! The new stuff was coded ONLY for Windows 2000/NT - regardless of what the box said. Then Micro$oft wanted more money to fix their problem.
None of this is new to me - it's just the worst so far. Beyond all the Windows problems, there was Office 97: released prematurely to compete with the WordPerfect Suite and so unusable for the first several months before the " SR patches" that it cost my one-person business thousands in lost income. I bought the WordPerfect suite and it finally saved me. I don't know what to do as an alternative to FrontPage because I'm trapped in it.
With FrontPage, like Office and Windows, I never got what I paid dearly for in the first place: reliable software that did the job Microsoft claimed it would do. As I have done before with Microsoft, I felt forced to upgrade just to get what I paid for in the first place! Now Micro$oft has its hand out again, demanding payment for tech support that would provide another temporary fix for a recurring problem. I refuse! I have to draw the line somewhere. How many times do I have to feel like I am being played for a sucker by Microsoft before they stop? The answer: It would be forever if I let it go on, because there is no end to Micro$oft's greed. Yesterday, the news proclaimed Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. I despair that I helped put him there - not just because of the hurt from every penny spent that was taken from my business, myself and my family - but because I feel thoroughly scammed and robbed in my simple efforts to buy software that really does what the company claims it will do. Microsoft's impunity in ripping-off so many of the little guys like me is the most certain and enduring evidence of its status as a monopoly in our society.
At this point, I believe I have no choice but to return the product to its despicable maker. Not just because I see no solution to the situation, but also because the Restrictions in the new "End-User License Agreement" tell me that I, "May not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft . . . or their products or services . . . ." Geesh! I guess now I really blew it. Everybody knows, when it comes to confronting monopolies in our great corporatocracy of the United States, First Amendment rights don't apply.
Granville Angell
(This same post will be also entered in a new category due to the 2002 issues.)
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