In the last year or two they've started to get insanely defensive. If any direct competitors to any Microsoft products are mentioned they immediately leap to flame. Someone mentions OpenGL? No, no, no, DirectX is superior in every way! It's faster, it's easier to use, it's simpler to set up, it's just universally better! Linux comes up? Pfft, Windows servers do EVERYTHING! And you'd better not mention OpenOffice, because, clearly, it's inferior in every conceivable way.
And we're not talking about pointing out legitimate flaws. There are *many* flaws in all of those. And we're not even talking about making dubious statements. We're talking about things that are blatantly false. DirectX might be faster. DirectX might be easier for advanced stuff. But for learning, DirectX requires far more code to get it working, and it's not nearly as simple - you can set up OpenGL from memory, but no way could you do that with DX. (For example.)
It's really strange to watch. I find myself constantly wondering what's going on with them. Do they honestly believe this? If so, why? If not, why are they making themselves look so . . . well, stupid?
Maybe they're feeling all the pressure from Linux and OpenOffice (and, to some extent, probably Google.) Or maybe they're not. I really don't understand it.
But meanwhile, these people are slowly making the channel more and more toxic - someone shows up with a question, they get insulted six times and they leave. Someone shows up with a question involving OpenGL or Linux and they probably won't even get to the point of insulting the person.
Bah. Bah, I say.
