Anti-Microsoft Sentiments

I do not fully understand the hate surrounding Bill Gates and Microsoft. Normal criticism is acceptable but what goes in this page is way overboard. When reading some Web pages and “Micro$oft” jokes, it seems like it is fashionable to hate these guys.

Me, I’m not really a fan of Microsoft; but I don’t call them “Micro$oft” either (or Micro$hit, Windoze, or whatever is the creative spelling of the day is). Like I always say, tools are just tools and not rallying points. You don’t hate or love your wrench, do you?

If the cause of hatred is the inferiority of their products, I do not think the hate is justified. If you think Windows sucks, why live with it in hate? It’s not like you have to go to court and file a divorce or something.

You can, instead, go the Mac or Linux route (or Solaris, FreeBSD, BeOS, Darwin, whatever), be done with it, and be on your merry way creating good things for other people. Can’t switch because your company forces you to stay? Then bash your company, not Microsoft.

Other companies, like Oracle, also made bad design decisions; Apple got it wrong with the Newton; but the focus seems to be solely on Microsoft.

Sure, Microsoft has created some duds like ActiveX but great products have also been coming out their doors—Microsoft Office, Expression Studio, and Visual Studio come to mind and I’m sure there are others. Have we not learned that only those who never tried never failed? Do I have products that suck? No. Why? I haven’t released any, that’s why!

Could it be Microsoft’s business model? Well, theirs is not exactly the most blameless organization out there but it is also not really that evil as some would lead us to believe.

Yes, they want to profit from their product—and who doesn’t? And yes, they take measures to protect their property from theft, like WGA, which in some ways irritate some users. Well, people also fence their homes to prevent theft, don’t they?

I myself am an open source advocate. I like transparency in code, free software and mutual sharing. But that doesn’t mean I hate proprietary software. For me, choice is good. Why fight proprietary software? If they’re not as good as the free alternatives, they’re simply going to fade off anyway. If they make it, they might, at least, be good for something.

True, they might have ideas that are different from our own but should anyone suffer for that? Copernicus was beheaded for his heliocentric idea which happen to deviate from what was accepted during his time. Women were burned at the stake also for being, well, different from other women doing ordinary women stuff. A lot of people have already suffered in the past for being different. Shouldn’t we put an end to this and start respecting each other’s ideas?