Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Leaving MSNBC TV Partnership
pnewhook writes to tell us The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft and NBC have announced that they will be dissolving their joint cable TV news channel, MSNBC, with NBC retaining control. From the article: "NBC has completed a deal to assume majority control of the channel immediately, with an 82 percent stake, and it will become the sole owner within two years, NBC executives said yesterday. The two companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal. But the partners will continue their 50-50 ownership of the MSNBC Web site, which, partly as a consequence of its affiliation with Microsoft, is the most-used news site on the Internet."
I guess NBC got tired of M$'s demanding ways. Either that, or M$ wasn't really doing anything with the TV division...and they just were using it for marketing.
Try the Guardian for better news, or the BBC. The Brits got one thing right in my opinion: good *newsworthy* journalism. (And yeah, I'm ignoring their tabloid division...lol.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Help me, help you. - Jerry McGuire
is the most-used news site on the Internet.
Probably because every second person has it set as their *recommended* homepage as a result of installing MSN 150 times over the past 3 years. Now all we need is slashdot messenger... yes, that's it, create a further divide in IM... muahaha!
The MSNBC Web site... is the most-used news site on the Internet.
Sez who? Alexa.com puts it orders of magnitude below the BBC News website, for example.
"But the partners will continue their 50-50 ownership of the MSNBC Web site, which, partly as a consequence of its affiliation with Microsoft, is the most-used news site on the Internet."
Of course, the New York Times and Slashdot stories that have referenced MSNBC's news surely helped too.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
What is the proof?
Why does yahoo do this
That is a terrible term. I am English. There are Welsh, Scottish and Irish people... a 'Brit' is unknown here.
Anyway, as to the BBC. It is terribly bias toward 'correctness' and really sometimes reports really bad information - "Cyclist dies after colliding with car" - of course, really the car hit the cyclist... etc. etc.
The BBC news site is perhaps the best around (the best of the worse), but it is very far from being perfect and 'unbiased', as it still is a mouthpiece for the Government, and thus, has to follow Government rules on what it can, and what it cannot, say (or report) correctly.
In pixel size print
All Your Base Are Belong To Us!
the homepage of msnbc directs to an msn.com site, so, you should be comparing that. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details? &compare_sites=msn.com&y=t&q=&url=news.bbc.co.uk
Of course, msn has other stuff.. but, you can't use alexa to weed that out.
MSN is ranked #2 behind Yahoo for most web users by alexa.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
Despite the market demand for computer media and success of the cable industry and broadband internet over cable, with the AOL/Time Warner issues and now the NBC and MS issues, it appears as though the media are still content being rich like they are now (who wouldn't??). But their strangle hold on the content and their inability to change is still evident, and the only people that are really slightly inconvenienced by their actions are their paying customers. Their non-paying counterparts are just inconvenienced. FYI, convenience sells (see iTunes, "fast" food, and convenience stores for an example).
AOL/Time Warner should have been a complete success. Time Warner owns stuff like HBO, and if they adopted something similar to the subscription model like "premium" channels it would have been a remarkable success. Content (Time Warner) and the control of the distribution channel (AOL) is ironically what they want, but can't seem to understand their own business very well. Look at the success of the porn industry with almost the same product, but they do not have a lock on the pipe like AOL/Time Warner did.
Personally, I never understood the NBC and MS union or what their goals were, but apparently neither did they.
It was said that during the Mexican American war, that the Mexican armies had superior equiptment, training, and size to the US armies of the time. But the funny thing was that they lost badly because, it is said, that each general was so greedy for power and control - that they refused to work together with any of the other gnereals, thus fragmenting their forces and ensuring their loss.
In a way, it seems, that the same is true of the content cartels of today. They are so into controlling people to gain a monopoly on content distribution - that they can't possibly bring themselves to work with or to trust each other. Meanwhile Linux, and free and open source alternatives to media, contnet, and opperating systems are moving forward as a unified front.
I think both MS and NBC are going to get what's comming to them, and now considering the recnet X-box arrests where people were given hard time for merely copying content, and then charged with totally unrelated DMCA violations. (Two overkills with one stone) I will be all the more relieved to see Microsoft and the copyright cartel burn in financial hell when their time comes due. I really hope people don't get or return their X-boxes this season, if for anything - in the name of Christmas spirit.
Because they have lost money on 99% of their other ventures.
If Office and Windows wasn't keeping them afloat, MS would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.
Well you are 'Yanks'. It even rhymes with "Tom 'Miss USA' Hanks", the typical 'yank'.
:-p
There is no such thing as a 'Brit'.
So the MS in NBC stood for "Microsoft"? I always thought it was "More Stupid NBC"...
Come to think of it, there's not much difference there...
"MY APOCALYPTIC TENOR HAS NOT BEEN DISPELLED!" - T-Rex, qwantz.com
Microsofts original idea was to tie in the media center to this. I had the 'not so' pleasurable opportunity to sit next to the head of the Media center department on an airplane ride once who told me the network was supposed to be used in conjunction with their M$ Media Center software for channel controls and additional advertising for M$ Products. I'm not a huge fan of NBC or M$'s Media Center products which have proven to do nothing extra-special (s-video out/in) boog whoopdiedoo. I think its a flop mainly. On some interesting facts, Media Center project employs 400 or so M$ employees and was in beta until last year.
How does the Xbox 360 look even remotely dead?
Yeah, the Xbox 360 is going horribly. I love it how I can walk into the local Best Buy and there are mountains of xbox 360's just waiting there. And the media is just ignoring the console altogether. I feel bad for MS. /sarcasm
And now I find I have nothing to say about MS selling up and moving out of what I suppose we will not know as MSNBC.com for long... except that every so often, I like to take out a few old copies of Wired from the late 90s and reminisce... and afterwards, I remember the old days. One of my faves is the showing Gates and a number of other then-high profile media magnates as the poker-playing dogs of dodgy Medway pub fame. (I forget the other dogs, I think mebbe there was Steve Case, Ted Turner, Murdoch,.. anyone?) The cover story was about WebTV and how MS was going to produce an end-run around the new young Internet startups with a mass-market, set-top-box based walled-garden internet. That tanked, and thank god tehy've not gone back to it... what freaks me out is stuff like WINCE, the Windows Media Edition stuff, web service & things where they seem prepared to spend huge amounts of money over a long period of time (5-10 years, which is a lifetime these days) patiently tweaking and refining crappy products whilst relentlessly marketing them down people's throats so they become unwilling beta testers.
I blame the Dutch, godamnit. Bah, humbug!!
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
"How does the Xbox 360 look even remotely dead?"
Was that a serious question?
It is already dead in one of the three major markets.
The manufacturing problems are clearly not a 'glitch' with the initial units, but a combination of serious design flaws having to do with overheating and disc scratching.
The number of units Microsoft is releasing at the current rate will barely get them to a million and a half units out there by the time the PS3 hits in March.
Even with the realitvely tiny number of units out on the store shelves, people are increasingly reporting seeing piles of unsold 360s in stores and the prices of 360s on eBay have plummeted down to near retail levels.
And I don't have the time to go into the weak and poorly designed hardware when it is functioning properly and not overheating. Nor to the lack of developer beyond the original Xbox's.
With the wealth of problems Microsoft is having as a company these days, expensive distractions like the 360 are going to have a hard time surviving. The first Xbox is a wildly unpopular project at Microsoft among the execs. The 360 was supposed to be the one more chance to get it right. That didn't happen. Microsoft most likely won't pull the plug on the 360 until the PS3 has launched, but it is inevitable at this point. The only question is what face saving way will they go about it.
As in PMSNBC.
Because whenever I flip channels and see Keith Olbermann, he always sounds like he's got PMS.
There was TheSite - hosted by Soledad O'Brien with the animated charecter "Dev Null" (who was actually voiced by Leo Laporte). Of course this all started in the .com days too - the idea of "convergence" and that starting early would give them a leg up. Well convergence hasnt arrived yet (though I think it will before 2010). It makes sense for MS to exit the partership - they really aren't getting anything out of it. Hell, until this happened, I had forgot that the MS in MSNBC stood for Microsoft.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
why? no fucking adverts!!!
I am glad my £110.00 a year TV licence fee I HAVE to pay goes to good causes to those that don't have to pay it.
Uh, 360s are in stores everywhere. People are talking about piles of 360s. I don't know about Best Buy, but Walmart, Targets, and other big retailers have piles of 360s in stores right now.
Just look at the prices of 360s on eBay, they have fallen to the same prices as retail 360s. Supply is not the problem for the 360, it is clearly the lack of demand outside the fairly small hardcore Xbox crowd.
Saying the only thing "more stupid" was your remark: $0
Saying maybe create an oribinal response next time just before that: priceless
L
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NBC
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Oh yes, oh yes.
Slashdot = -1 Redundant, Asperger, kdawson FUD, Libertarian, and Linux
You, are a goddamned retard. Though, you may have a future for Sony PR or as a SCO legal aide.
Umm... Excuse me, but isn't the slowest news day of the year the WORST time to try and bury a story? The TV media has to fill their timeslots, and papers have to fill the space, so the slower the news day, the more coverage less significant things like this will recieve. Witness the multiple stories on
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
FYI, it was going around over a month ago that MSFT planned shorting the supply of xbox360's initially to build up the "Elmo" effect( free press on a "hot" product in short supply ). And another thing, the xbox360 is still a money loser for MSFT just like the original, which brought in around $200 loss on each box.
So, how long should a company be considered "relevant" when they lose money on all their products but the ones they have a monopoly in? 15, maybe 20 years? Irrelevant IMO.
If you think the xbox is a gaming platform, then you clearly have your head on a collision course with your nearest rectal cavity.
The xbox is the manifest destiny of Microsoft - the acknowledgement that long term viability of their software - if only in the consumer market - is largely dependent on corresponding hardware...an appliance. In a world where Open Source has commoditized the OS to long-term irrelevancy, the Xbox 360 becomes M$'s iPod, destined to become the centerpiece of the digital home. And nary a game will need to be played for the 360 to fulfill that role.
It's Windows Media Center that is the maligned stepchild of this vision - a PC that poorly emulates a Tivo? The PC can never fill the role of Appliance in the minds of the market - it's just to generic of a unit to take on an appliance mentality or motif. No, if M$ executes correctly, the xbox becomes a head-end to IP-delivered media network content - Windows Media Center and your TV capture card together act as a headless Tivo "stop-gap" until IP media shows at the door.
I believe all this to be true after I (a) built a MythTV box and interfaced it to my local Comcast coaxial feed, (b) installed MythXBMC on my xbox, and (c) subscribed to countless RSS video feeds on XBMC. I now have IP-delivered cable TV and internet video coming to every xbox "set top box" and computer in the house. It's truly amazing.
To that end, I believe Myth, Slingbox, Sage, BeyondTV and the like are pioneers of the modern age - a bit ahead of their time due to an insufficient support network, ironically, a bit like MSNBC.
I say the rule goes: We don't see convergence until our parents see convergence. Even as they meander past the in-store kiosks, our parents are just now witnessing the enormous potential of the xbox 360 - and I don't mean the game-playing.
If MSNBC was a failure for M$, it is because broadcast TV itself is anachronistic to the next-generation media networks in which M$ hopes to thrive. If M$ gets out now, it saves millions per year until the "new" IP-delivered non-linear content (delivered to your local xbox 360) becomes ubiquitous. Maybe then Ballmer will knock on NBC's door whispering "hey, remember me?"
Any wonder why Cisco - yes, Cisco - purchased set-top-box manufacturer General Instruments this year? Cisco providing a game console? I don't think so. I see a future where xboxen win the appliance war against Cisco.
Makin' money, makin' friends, makin' whoopee and wearin' Depends
She is lucky that she is an attractive woman because she is spetacularly dumb.
GOP-TV.
There was nothing about this partnership that ever made good business sense, in my opinion. It was based on some vague notion that technology and the Internet were going to render traditional television irrelevant. NBC had no need for Microsoft, which is why MS ended up shouldering so much of the financial burden. It would make as little long-term sense as an ISP merging with an entertainment/media company. And who would be dumb enough to think THAT would work? :-)
Wow. They made a point of pointing out that MSNBC.com is only #1 because it's Microsoft. Sounds like sour grapes to me. New York Times is just pissed that THEY'RE not number one. (Well, if they were to get rid of the stupid registration requirement just to read a frickin' story, they might be.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
I'm sorry, but the parent post http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=172124&cid=143 32895 isn't flamebait. It's point is very on topic and real. Maybe some people are pissed off, because they don't like the trailing hint to toss their X-box and not game. But the truth is, it it entertainment, the sacrifice being made by people who are facing hard time is real. Considering Microsoft's role in all this, I thought is was a valad side point.
This is a very inteligent analysis. I think you really have it spot on.
Your future as a sycophantic Slashbot is very good!
Yeah, and Ford is pretty damn lucky cars are so popular!
I just got back from Fry's where I picked up a copy of Burnout Revenge. Damn DQVIII was sold out though.
There were two large piles of new 360 boxes. One on the floor about three feet tall and another pile up on a shelf of about the same size.
And a few days ago the local target had quite a few sitting right behind the demo unit.
What stores are saying it is sold out?
You're trying to see something when it's not really there. The sentence makes journalistic sense as it's written, simply because it is conveying the fact that msnbc.com is the most popular site because MS drives traffic there. As a reporter, you're constantly looking to answer readers' most obvious questions (in the context when they'll be wondering). In this case, it would be natural for the reader who reads that msnbc.com is the leading news site to be wondering, "How could that be since I don't see it as a leader?" The reporter has anticipated the obvious question by explaining that it's No. 1 because MS sends people there. It doesn't take the time or space to fully expand on the answer, but it provides enough information to make the facts make sense in context.
BTW, the NYT doesn't want to be the site with the most traffic. The company wants to be the one with the most paid customers accessing content. The Wall Street Journal has made a lot of money doing that, and the NYT is trying to see whether it can make its web site more profitable. You can debate all day whether it's a smart strategy or not, but it's very clear that they're not trying to compete with a site such as msnbc.com.
Actually Cisco acquired Scientific-Atlanta recently. Motorola acquired General Instrument some time ago - it is now Motorola Broadband.
As trditional telecom carriers such as Verizon roll out fiber to the home and cable companies deploy next generation broadband networks both of which will increase the inbound bandwidth to the home, I see alot of what you mention becoming reality - of course, this presumes that the carriers and cable companies allow that content, which may compete with their offerings, to pass over their network with the appropriate QoS characteristics. We already hear rumblings that certain carriers are considering actions that may impact competing voice services.
I doubt it is going to happen, but I would hope that now when NBC covers the latest major Windows malware outbreak they'll consider pointing out that there are other OSes that are unaffected.
I'd wondered if the NBC connection to Microsoft would cause a lack of news coverage of the widespread Xbox 360 thermal problems (likely to be more widely experienced after units wrapped as gifts are opened and later when the weather gets hot). I haven't caught any tv coverage. But I didn't see coverage of the Sony fiasco either.
It may be that the U.S. commercial media are reluctant to cover negative stories involving advertisers. They do a better job when safety is involved as in the case of toy or automotive product recalls.
Advertising supported "Free TV" seems to carry a high social cost. We get biased news, unhealthy promotion of certain foods and drugs, unhealthy promotion of the use of credit, unhealthy promotion of products that damage the environment, and paid political ads which are at the core of our political corruption. If broadcasters had to carry all candidate/proposition information ONLY in a FREE and balanced way, politicians would have less need to sell out to special interests to finance media-buys for their campaigns. I think the broadcast regulatory changes of the past 25 years have gone the wrong direction.
Considering that broadcasters are trustees of the public interest, I believe that there should be no paid political advertising, no broadcast ownership shared by those connected to other media, and no broadcast licenses granted to those who live outside the coverage area of the station(s) they own.
The basic reason is that most of us trust the traditional outlets, and want new ways to interact with those outlets. If there is a way to continue to support those outlets, that would be good as well. The issue creeeps up in how we are going to interact with those.
The first thing that is needed is broadband. MS has done nothing to help this problem. They have not partnered with broadband providers. They tried, but the AOL deal fell through. They have not partnered with cable providers, nor has cable providers moderated their rates. As a result broadband is beyond my parents ability becuase DSL is our of reach and cable is too expensive. Without broadband, the computer, in most incarnations, is irrelevent.
The second thing is that have not been consumer focused. It is not about what services the consumer wants, or what changes in policy might help consumers. Rather the questions are more like how can we work with content providers to maximize margins. WMA has much more security that is neccesary. The appplications are more concerned with protecting media than the user experienc. As a result I have seen family and freinds leaving the windows platform and moving to the mac for thier internet and media needs. It provides a more consumer centric experience.
As MS moves into the serious hardware bussiness, they are going to have to compete with old timers that know how to balance the need of consumers and margins. MS is now competing with firms that have been making complex devices, not just mice and toys. I wish them luck, but without some major media deals, are they really going to be able to compete with Lost on iTunes in the US or the PS3 in the rest of the world.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Hmm. Well, our local Fry's is sold out. Our local Target is out. I haven't called the local Best Buy -- I'm not interested in buying a box, just in knowing how many have sold, though, so I probably won't. I've been watching the mainstream analyst reports carefully, and I've seen a steady stream of reports from big box retailers that they're out, even in a season which has been (overall) abysmal. I've seen one describing the XBox 360 as one of the "few bright spots" in an otherwise dark year for retail. OTOH, I may run out to get my wife an extra present, in which case I'll check at Target again.
Fuck the main story, it's time for some offtopic banter...
/dev/null was back then! I must have been like 11. I can't believe I remember this, but... I think Dev Null was run on dual SGI 500 mhz boxes. thesite.com is probably worth A LOT of money today. Now it's something lame like a redirect to g4.com
I remember thesite on msnbc. That was before tech tv or the similiar. Really, there was little/no tech presence on TV except maybe some shows on discovery channel. I remember seeing N64 for the first time on there. I didn't even know what the hell
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
If 360s are sitting on eBay right now near retail price with no one bidding on them:
n sole
http://search.ebay.com/Microsoft-Xbox-360-Game-co
Clearly 360s aren't sold out. Highly sought after products that are really sold out during the holidays will have easily double their prices on eBay accross the board.
From TFA:
"We don't expect any of our three viewers to see any significant changes to programming," executives said.
Remember 9 years ago when the democrats were running the show, news media was a great business, and MS announced their venture into MSNBC. Everyone cried conspiracy and thought the world was going to end because of MS. 9 years later MS discovered that it's not easy to play the news business when the democrats are losing. Now MS is out and it's time to find the next conspiracy.
It's too bad this didn't work the other way around... with MS staying in the television partnership and bailing out on the website.
NBC News is fairly respectable, yet they're shooting themselves in the foot by alienating anyone who doesn't use Internet Explorer and Windows.
They'd probably have even better numbers (even if they are already skewed by MSN...) if they allowed people using other platforms to view video content.
If you look at closing auction prices, the core system is currently closing at about $500, with shipping additional. That's a 60% price premium to the system itself, which is strong evidence that the thing is still in short supply in at least some places.
Uh, no.
Premiums are topping out at 500 bucks. And more telling is the huge numbers of 360s that have 0 bids. The only 360s that are getting any bids are ones that are starting at or below retail cost.
Add in the hassle of setting up an auction and buying the system yourself and sales tax and people are essentially dumping 360s for no real profit.
If the hype about the demand for the 360 had any validity, there would be masses of people bidding 360s up into the low 1000s.
Sony is selling more PS2 than Microsoft XBox 360, but Microsoft is making less units.
Does this mean when the next X-Box comes out, there won't be 5 billion "news" pieces about the X-Box? It really annoys me when news channels make "news specials" that are really just additional commercials for a product.
Hopefully Sony won't make a similar partnership, as I'm sure they'd do the same for their next generation Playstation.
You're changing your story. Originally, it was that they were selling for cost -- they aren't. Now it's "look at the ones which don't have bids" -- which means you're not looking at the last two minutes before the auctions close. A premium means that the items aren't available at retail where the purchaser is. More than that, the end of the pre-christmas rush for eBay was the 22nd, so this is not desperate parents. Given the steady stream of bids, that means there's a significant unmet demand. Finally, I did decide to go to Target for a present for my wife. Maybe yours has 360'sm but ours certainly does not.
I'm a news junkie and I used to watch 4 hours straight of MSNBC before 9/11. Donahue was definitely a vocal lefty, but he had a pretty good show. He peeved the brass though by being just as vocal in opposing the Iraq invasion when most people were too cowardly to do it. Well, MSNBC promptly cancelled his show and started airing these ultra nationalist "God bless America" promos to prove that they really weren't really anti-war pinko commies. They then followed up by recruiting a line-up of Faux News wannabes (Tucker "Just as big a dick in person" Carlson, Joe "Killer" Scarborough, and Rita "My balls just dropped" Crosby). Yeah, Keith Olbermann represents the lefties, but he's a damned sports journalist with absolutely no business in a prime time slot. Even Chris Matthews is trying to go right. My God, his post-White House Christmas Ball sucking up to the President was disgusting and provided a nice example of how our mainstream media icons are really nothing more than sycophants.
And, MSNBC wonders why their ratings suck. You're not going to be the next Fox News when conservatives are convinced that any news they weren't fed from the Republican spin machine is leftie biased.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Tucker Carlson is a treasure. Seriously, this guy belongs in a museum. Just looking at him cracks me up. Has anyone ever done a better job of personifying the visual stereotype of east coast old money?
Preppy private school looks - check
Moppy hair - check
Snobby - check
Asshole - check (hey, I like the guy, but I don't think you can dispute this)
Loves to argue - check
Horray! Now I can watch MSNBC again....if I really want to. Think I'll stick with FNC.
Good news, Microsoft nolonger owns MSNBC. The bad news, It still won't save NBC from sucking.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
If only I had mod points ...
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
Anyone find it suspicious that this news comes just 2 weeks after NBC signed on with the iTMS? Not to mention that Microsoft just announces an online media retailer of it's own to compete with iTMS. I was very surprised a few weeks ago when NBC showed up on iTMS, and wondered, at the time, whether the two companies had had a falling out. Apple as a whole may not be much of a threat to Microsoft, but iTMS most definitely is—besides Blu-Ray/PS3, it's probably the biggest thing standing in their way of inevitable media domination. Currently, with the unbelievable promise that iTMS is showing, Microsoft's future in controlling media content is looking pretty bleak, and it might have been that NBC jumped ship.
Think about it, the TV/Film industry sat back and watched the music industry go down the toilet due to their resistance of digital media, and they don't want to make the same mistake. iTMS offers a simple introduction into online media distrobution NOW, where-as microsoft sits back, shooting it's mouth off, trying to slow things down. They failed to offer HD compatable media with their game system, and they have failed to deliver online media distrobution at a time when the market is extremely ripe for development. It's obvious that they can't be counted on to carry any allied companies into the future of media. NBC, in attempts to avoid a similar debacle to that of the music industry, wants onboard now. Whatever promises MS makes for the future of online media distrobution cannot be trusted to be delivered before the industry takes off without them.
Interesting thing, on a "money show" the other day, there was a guy going on and on about how, even though 2005 was the year of Google and Apple, that 2006 would undoubtedly be the year of Microsoft: his reasoning? XBox360 and Vista. Seeing as how the XBox360 has had quite possibly the worst press of any major console I've ever seen (and that's without the two other competitors who will be jumping on board within in the next year) I can't see how stockholders can get really excited about investing cash based on it's "success". And Vista is possibly the biggest unknown the industry has ever been faced with.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Not only is Alexa's sample biased, they're also sloppy. T-Online.de, which is the world's second largest ISP iirc, is listed as "In Form Design, Inh. Katrin Voigt"...
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Silly, it's called creating an artificial shortage to beef up demand. It happens all the time, and no the XBox isn't doing anywhere nearly as well as MS had hoped.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
if you're not a big M$ fan, don't let it bother you. It may seem childish to you, but the way M$ has acted the past 8 years has been the most childish thing I've seen in the tech world.
The difference with all the other companies you mentioned? They seem to care about putting out a quality product, with $$$ profit not being the only reason for creating it. All Linux stuff gives back to the tech community in the best way, and Apple obviously cares about more than just profits (fighting the major labels on song pricing for the past 2 years, while M$ has been bending over backward trying to lure them by putting in the most restrictive DRM possible)
M$ knows only profit.