Dear Zune It's Over

Dear Zune,

I want you to know I've tried, I mean really really tried, but I give up. It's over, we're done.

I put up with your crappy software as long as I possibly could. I overlooked the clunky interface and pathetic battery life. I was initially enamored with your wifi, but since I could never find anyone else who had a zune... much less someone willing to share music, your "social" was pretty lonely.

So this is it. I can't take it any more. Today was the final straw. Not only does your software make me want to scream obscenities at old women and small children, but your subscription service has consistently failed me. The music I want isn't available and when it is, I get errors at download time. I just can't win with you... ever.

And you know, what pisses me off the most, is I defended you... yes that's right. People would ask me, why I was putting up with you... and I would always smile and take up for you and you still let me down time after time. I've come to realize it's not me, it's you.

So that's it then. I suppose I should tell you, not that I really owe you anything, but before you hear it from someone else... I'm buying an ipod tonight. I used the iTunes software before we met and it was a wonderful experience. I tried to put that behind me, but I can't. So, I'm going back to what makes sense for me at this point in my life.

Good luck, but please don't call me anymore. It will only be too hard for both of us.

posted on Wednesday, December 03, 2008 5:25 PM

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# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/3/2008 9:59 PM Matt Worden

Dude ... That's so sad ... and yet brave, all at the same time. I will now raise a snifter of a sweet, southern whiskey in honor of the past ... and in hope for the future. (Or simply because I like the way it tastes ... but still.)

;-)

Hope the iPod does the trick for you. I bought my wife an iRiver a couple years ago ... she's happy with it, but wishes to call it an iPod. Apple markets well.

-Matt

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/3/2008 10:11 PM Anachostic

Sorry to hear you were disappointed. We have two Zune 30's in the house and both still kicking with no problems. It's entirely possible our expectations are lower than yours, but we're happy.

I never finished my two XNA games for Zune. I never got past figuring out you could query the Zune db with ZuneDbAPI.dll. I quit my regular Zune forum because the new crowd was full of jerks. If anything, I feel I didn't do enough for the Zune community.

But even though I'm alone and haven't done any significant personal advancement with the Zune, it continues to play my music and videos. And I find that's all I need.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/3/2008 10:55 PM Chris Williams

I'd be tickled to death if mine even did that much. Currently, it plays nothing. The software doesnt work, reinstalling bombs, and when it did work, it rendered my pc nearly unusable.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/4/2008 8:10 AM Donn Felker

These kind of posts crack me up

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/4/2008 10:56 AM Brian Scarbeau

I managed to squeeze a tear with your post.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/4/2008 9:16 PM Jason Olson

Yeah, the problem is obviously you. Once you get over your period, you won't be nearly as emotional, I know that.

I'm not having any problems with my Zune (Zune 30). It's still kicking strong, great battery life, and haven't run into any of these issues. The Zune marketplace kicks ass for me. And with the latest update, you now get 10 credits a month to get 10 songs in full-blown, non-DRM'd, pure MP3 love. Not bad :). That's almost worth the monthly payment right there, let alone all the other stuff you can download.

I put forth the argument that the reason you never find anything to download is that your tastes in music actually SUCK. Yup, they're horrible. You LOSE as a listener of music. I would feel bad for you, but I don't. Why? Because I ROCK.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 8:19 AM Chris Williams

Dear Jason...

I notice you "cleverly" avoided the argument about the Zune Software sucking the life out of me and my laptop. Perhaps thats because you have no argument, because you know the software is a steaming pile of poo?

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 8:26 AM David Carter

Doesn't Jason Olson work for Microsoft? Go figure he's the only one to outright attack you (so far.) Way to class it up with the menstruation reference, Microsoft! The fact is, the Zune software does totally suck.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 8:36 AM Jason Olson

Touche David :). I may work for Microsoft, but I'm not a corporate drone. I'm good friends with Chris IRL, so I thought it was an ample time to give him crap :).

So consider the comment from "Jason The Good Friend", not "Jason The Microsoft Drone." It's true, many of us Microsofties actually have personalities like all of you do :).

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 8:41 AM Jason Olson

"I notice you "cleverly" avoided the argument about the Zune Software sucking the life out of me and my laptop. Perhaps thats because you have no argument, because you know the software is a steaming pile of poo?"

That's because I can't flat-out lie to you :). I personally haven't had a single problem with the software (and for my 80gb of music it's been WAYYYYYY better than iTunes), but that doesn't help you one lick. And I believe you that you're running into all of these issues, so there's no way I'm going to try to defend it :).

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 10:07 AM Steve A.

I think David's point is that you embarrass yourself (and quite possibly Microsoft) by your immature behavior and bathroom humor.

You should try to be more professional. Oh and zune sucks, ipod FTW!! I gave up on Zune a long time ago.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 10:27 AM Donn Felker

I think that anyone with any heavy duty experience would be able to accurately defend either product. I know that Chris has experienced both and I've heard of problems with the Zune software from a few MVP's now. Its not that these MVP's don't like the Zune, its just that the experience level is well below what it should be. Yes, maybe 50-75 % of people who use the product don't have problems - and Jason maybe you fall into this category - .. but as experts in the field chris is bound to push the limits. He's an XNA guy too, so I'm sure he's tried to work with it via the XNA dev. I personally dont own a Zune simply because I think the hardware interface of the actual device is kind of clunky and 1998. But thats just me. So I went straight for the ipod. I've never had any problems other than it freezing once. BUT... I will say this. I hate the Itunes software. Its infect-ware IMO. The UI is easy to use and figure out, but other than that ... its slow, clunky, and doesnt have a "smooth" feel to it.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 10:36 AM David Weller

It's over for both the Zune and iTunes anyway as service platforms: http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b/ref=sv_m_7?ie=UTF8&node=163856011

I don't even use iTunes anymore, I use MediaMonkey.

DRM platforms are dead for Music and Movies.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 11:06 AM John Sedlak

The Zune software has its strengths. After suffering through 7 iterations of iTunes, I had enough and moved on to WMP. But then the Zune came out and I grabbed my bags and jumped on board. I haven't been happier since.

Recently I have had a lot of problems with downloading from the marketplace however. My major gripe is with that portion of the software. My number one wanted feature is a "recently bought" list so you can a) make sure you got what you paid for and b) make sure they downloaded. Why? I purchased some songs and got an error, but my bottle caps (MS points) were gone. It is a pain to have to find each song in the marketplace again to redownload them. I ended up adding them to a playlist to keep track of them and make sure they downloaded.

As for the Zune.. the hardware is horrendous. The difference between a touch and a center click is miniscule. I can't play games because my fingers are too big and I always end up folding when I mean to go all in.

But the Zune works all the time and has lasted longer than any iPod I ever owned. It has never crashed, has decent battery life and serves its purpose.

What more do you need?

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 1:16 PM Jason Olson

Steve A.

Sigh, I suppose it's just the truth that no matter who is reading, they will always interpret my comments as "coming from Microsoft" rather than "coming from this guy's friend." Just another sad fact that you give up being able to "be yourself" around people when you work for a company like this.

Thanks for the reminder. I have a tendency to cross the line from time to time (obviously). I didn't realize comments on friends' blogs always had to be constructive, professional, and dry. Next time I'll just call him up on the phone :).

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/5/2008 11:04 PM Michael Earls

Hmm, sorry that you had so many problems. I have a 30 and an 80 and they're both working fine. The Zune software runs great on my computer (running Vista even ;) ) and all is well. Hope you like iTunes AND iPod. I tried that, too, but had to come back to Zune. Your mileage may vary. Again, good luck!

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/9/2008 11:43 AM D'Arcy from Winnipeg

"Once you get over your period, you won't be nearly as emotional, I know that."

ROFLMAO!

That's almost as funny as Donn Fellker complaining on Twitter about his boring cruise and the odd lack of females on board...
;)

D

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/9/2008 7:05 PM Julie Lerman

I was really sad over the loss of my nano on my last trip to Europe. I was oggling the new Nano's but I decided I would just get a Zune with my MVP bucks. It's just the 8GB one which is comparable (somewhat) to my 4GB Nano. I definitely feel no emotional connection to it like I did to my Nano. But it's only been a few days. So we'll see. And I won't tell you if I am having my period or not at the moment. In fact, I promised that I will *never* let you know. ;-)

I am bummed that I can't put my contacts or calendar on it. I'll get used to teh UI though. We'll see how it goes.

julie

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/10/2008 6:20 AM Joe

Any mildly-experienced software engineer would be dissapointed with the player software suites, particularly the iTunes application. I have 5 iPods in the house, so I obviously went to the well a few times over and like these devices, but I don't know if I should laugh or cry each morning when iTunes sucks up AN ENTIRE CPU of my dual-core machine to download a single podcast on my 1MB/sec internet connection.

You gotta work real hard to write network code capable of doing that. And at iteration #8, it the software still sucks. There is much to improve, and Apple can obviously do it, but they don't.

# re: Dear Zune It's Over 12/17/2008 7:14 PM Tony

Chris!
Aww, I bet I am too late.

Rumor is Gil Gerard is going to start doing iPOD commercials!

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