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The Company Everyone Loves To Hate
In honor of Microsoft's 30th year, Epeeist writes "The BBC is running a Have Your Say article on Microsoft at 30." From that article: "Microsoft will always adapt and buy into other areas to keep themselves at the top. They're the company everyone loves to hate." While they're reflecting, most people are focusing on the now. teslatug writes "Brian Jones, a Microsoft PM on the Office team, has just confirmed that the new default XML format of Office 12 is not compatible with the GPL. Brian believes that LGPL may be compatible, but others have raised issues about the ability to redistribute." Relatedly, shades66 writes "Microsoft's Alan Yates tripped over his own words in responding to the Massachusetts Information Technology Division's late-August declaration for OpenDocument and other open software standards." For some more colourful commentary, smooth wombat writes "John Dvorak has written an article for MarketWatch in which he postulates that the reorganization by Microsoft is actually a prelude to its breakup into three separate entities."
Indeed, I would hate to see what a truly efficient Microsoft could do to Apple, Sun and the open source community. Considering their resources, and if they can whittle themselves down to a highly efficient company, they could put up an effort against their competitors second to none. Now, perhaps that wouldn't be a bad thing. An innovative Microsoft will force the open source community and other companies to become just as competitive, if not more so.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
No, I hate hating them. I'd rather not have such annoyances in my life. I'd just like safe, secure software that does what I want, and nothing that I don't want.
And I'd like them to secure the current operating system before moving to the next one.
For a programmer an improved operating system is one with less program faults, less resource requirements, and better performance on the same hardware. Microsoft seems bound and determined to go in exactly the opposite direction.
Cheaper would be nice too. Darn, they missed that one too.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Actually, the BBC put out some decent programming at one point. But their news broadcasts continue to drift leftwards and even their costume dramas are total crap. I can't believe the Brits are still willing to pay a tax on their televisions just to support that outfit. Wait a minute... were you referring to that evil monopolistic computer company, IBM?
"Standards" designed to make a competitors entry into any given market controlled by microsoft impossible."
An endless FUD compaign against competitors
and choosing to stifle innovation in self interest of controlling the direction of the market to areas they already control.
Because that judgement was overturned? Because Dvorak claims that MS is voluntarily considering something that they fought vehemently against?
Note that I think Dvorak is off his rocker, incidentally.
But it's pretty tough to avoid the obvious comparison between Microsoft and the Hydra. Think Google & Co. will deal Microsoft a fatal blow? Guess again! It just pops back with three heads instead of one.
In a previous discussion here earlier this year I suggested that Microsoft was getting ready to collapse. This was based on the special dividend they paid out which only served to draw down the cash on hand and make certain people much richer. Look for them to issue a few more special dividends then start selling off chunks of the company.
And I really like the other posters comment: "They are going to reproduce?!"
They're the company everyone loves to hate.
I'm not hating them, I'm sick of them...
In the South Park movie, Bill Gates got shot in the head and everyone in the theater laughed. Once South Park wants to kill you, the teeming masses will follow.
I saw that movie in an on campus theater, at a university, with an audience of hundreds and hundreds of engineers and scientists. That scene received a standing ovation, hoots, screams, cries of joy, thrown popcorn, and other jubilation that drowned out the movie for the next 5 minutes.
How can an XML file format be incompatible with the GPL?
Does that mean we can't link them directly, or include them embedded within a binary?
It's a file format. They going to patent XML?
I'm confused.. I think he only said that for FUD factors, becouse it makes NO sense at all.
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Is it Microsoft that is evil?
n s/microsoftDejanews.png
s /billgatesDejanews.png
http://www.realmeme.com/Main/evilindex/corporatio
Or is it Bill Gates?
http://www.realmeme.com/Main/evilindex/celebritie
Found this on the "Have your say" page:
Microsoft are the greatest company in the world and managed by a genius.
Bill, Seattle
Help find a cure for cancer!
In your reply: That's really just legal-ese, and the only reason that geeks felt that they were anti-trust experts was because they knew of a high-profile computer company that was involved. Real people don't care.
Actually, the reason I felt I knew something about this was because I worked at Microsoft. I left, explaining when I left I felt if what they were doing wasn't illegal, it was at least unethical -- reason enough for me to go. Eventually I testified in the DOJ case.
As for your willingness to just allow that "that's how the world works", it's your perogative. It's also an attitude that eventually allows those who would abuse their power to eventually abuse it absolutely.
I skimmed the user comments but this one at the very bottom leered out at me:
"Microsoft has changed the world. At this point, the fact that they have such a large percentage of the market is a good thing. It has also guaranteed that English will be the language of the world for many generations to come."
Translation:
"It's because of Microsoft that neither I nor my decscendents for the next 12 generations will have to acknowledge the world outside the little bubble that is Decatur, Georgia."
Skype is too convoluted... Now I'm reverse-engineering the Kyoto Protocol.
If you view Microsoft as a software company, they have always had mediocre products. If you think that Microsoft's main product is adversarial behavior, they are one of the most successful companies in the world!
Here's just a tiny, tiny sample: The U.S. District Court's Findings of Fact in the Microsoft antitrust case lists 207 pages of abuses.
"Honor" and then "colourful". What's up with using the American spelling for one and the international spelling from the other?
Signature.
Billy G donated a fair amount of computing equipment to a local library here. Of course, all the computers have to do is connect to the library web-based database or do simple web browsing, but still...