My First Ever "Microsoft Sucks" Post

Microsoft is big. Really, really big. So when the folks at Microsoft decide to change the way one of their core applications works, it affects a lot of people.

So here it is - the HTML rendering engine in Outlook 2024 has been replaced with the MS Word rendering engine, removing the Internet Explorer engine used in previous versions.

This is bad, people... although the idiots who were screaming for IE to be removed from MS Windows probably think it's really really super great.

Why is it bad? Well, it's bad because many (most?) email newsletter designs will break in the new version of MS Outlook. Now anyone who is publishing email content (newsletters, for example) with HTML now has to go back and check their designs in the Outlook 2024 / Word 2024 rendering engine...

We all have to figure out redesigns that will work in IE, Mozilla, Safari, Word... oh joy, it's like doing the 1990s browser compatibility nonsense all over again. And we all have to go get Outlook 2024 so we can check them.

The only good thing about Microsoft's dominance (monopoly if you like) in operating systems was that you could count on most applications using IE as the HTML rendering engine. You would think Microsoft would be the last to break with this, but, well, big does not mean smart.

You can read more on ZDNet and SitePoint Tech Times, which contains a reference to Microsoft's documentation of the changes in Outlook 2024... that last one is a depressing read if you have to deal with email design.

My official position as of today: Microsoft Sucks. This does not imply that anything else (e.g. Linux) rocks. Actually, I think Indi rocks, but since it's going to be a commercial product, it probably will only rock as an idea, before being swept aside by something cool and free with open source code.

This isn't evil, just stupid. Really really stupid.