There is a lot of Microsoft hate out there. From Apple fans to Linux zealots, few have any good words for Microsoft. Of course, a lot of the criticism is deserved.
However a lot of the critics are just plain retarded.
Let's sum up the most-heard Microsoft bashing:
"Windows crashes a lot"
It sure does. It's had quite a few bugs. But maybe all these bugs didn't originate with Microsoft? You could have had shitty third party software, shitty hardware or shitty drivers.
In addition to that, Windows users have grown accustomed to and pretty much expect compatibility with all legacy software they have kicking around. That means that Microsoft has to make sure their new shit works with all your crummy old software because you've demanded it. The result is big, bloated, buggy and slow.
"Linux is awesome. Windows is for n00bs."
Linux is so many things at once that it is hard to discern what the hell some people find better about Linux than Windows. The greatest thing that Linux has going for it is that you can pretty much make it do whatever the hell you want it to do.
Even though Linux is great for many things, don't rely on finding too many objective comparisons between Linux and any other product. You'll have to do your own damn homework. Here's why:
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There are countless flavours of Linux and about a dozen different releases of Windows
Saying that Linux is better than Windows is like saying Toyota is better than Honda. Which Toyota is being compared to which Honda? If you compare Ubuntu to Windows Me, Linux wins. If you compare Windows XP to Mandrake 6.0, Windows wins. Don't be stupid. -
Fans are morons
The "Linux sux, Windows rulez" crowd are totally blind as to what everybody serious about getting work done is running (read: ANYTHING but Windows for certain applications). The "Linux rulez, Windows sux" crowd are more often than not disillusioned Windows users trying to prevent giving Bill Gates another dollar while picking up some free software political bias. Both groups live completely in warped realities. -
Every work is derivative
At some level, KDE, GNOME, Windows and Mac OS are all rip-offs of each other. If one incorporates a good idea, the rest copy it or do something similar that solves the same problem. How can any one of them claim superiority in design?
"I own a Mac. It's user-friendly, virus-free and never crashes. Apple is just fantastic"
The main goal of virus writers is to infect as many machines as possible. They like being the bastards of the internet. Macs don't have viruses for the same reason Linux and basically all non-Microsoft operating systems don't - there are millions of Windows desktops run by folks that don't know jack about computer security. If you use Firefox as a web browser and don't click on email attachments with names like "hello-penis-key-generator.exe" it is very difficult to get a virus.
Do you think Apple would be where it is today if they didn't have Microsoft to contend with? I believe their product development would have most definitely stagnated if Windows adoption didn't kick them in the ass so hard they bled from their ears. OS 9 sucked.
Apple controls all the hardware their operating system will run on. They love to design every last bit of their machines and they couldn't care less if anybody else used similar hardware. The user will return to Apple-friendly products for support because there is no choice. Nobody is running an iMac with a new video card they bought aftermarket from some random startup company. This simplifies the whole quality assurance process greatly. Nobody is complaining that the latest cards and videogames aren't working, simply because they nobody is running the latest cards or videogames.
Granted, hardware diversity across the board is degrading with the demise of the component based desktop in favour of everything-is-onboard laptops. This doesn't change that Apple only deals with one laptop manufacturer - itself. Dell, HP and the rest aren't making Mac laptops.
If you honestly believe that everybody should just go out and buy a Mac and that Apple knows best, well your world would still be running Apple IIs as there would be no incentive for Apple to produce anything greater. Shut the hell up about Apple, the great leaps in computer hardware came from competition, not Apple fetishism.
"I won't support Bill Gates, he's a super rich asshole"
Of all the super rich assholes you support, Bill Gates is probably the most likeable.
You make a lot of people rich. The Waltons, the Saudis, the IKEA people, the Starbucks crew, the Hiltons, Larry Ellison, Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay, George Bush and many others have made billions while you consider yourself fortunate if you can buy a house without selling your soul to Satan.
The difference between these people and Gates is if you ever do some reading about the guy you are more likely to learn about the work his foundation does than learn about drunken sexcapades on private gold plated yachts.
Gates has given up a lot of cash for good causes. In the meantime, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that all the this time the rest of rich America was thinking of better ways of getting you overrated coffee while you test out a couch sold by a faceless big box retailer whose brand name also appeared on your utility bill.
"Microsoft is anti-competition and loves to bundle software to weed out third party vendors. Microsoft is an evil monopoly"
Netscape hated Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer because it basically killed their market. The EU is currently suing the pants off Microsoft for bundling Windows Media Player with Windows. Bundling software removes the need to look for other products and kills off a lot of other vendors.
Microsoft is also known to make deals with hardware manufacturers and give them OEM discounts when they preinstall Windows with their product. Lots of people bitch and complain that this is using their power for evil.
But who else bundles software and preinstalls operating systems? Fucking everybody! Apple does it! Apple LOVES to bundle stuff and fill voids that could have created markets for other vendors. Most of the popular Apple software - iTunes, iLife, iWhatever - are developed completely by Apple and bundled with OS X. Apple is not a monopoly, but they'd love to be one.
Lets say courts are going to rip apart Microsoft and disallow them from making deals with manufacturers and from bundling software. This would go a long way to create competition, but it seems to be quite a double standard. When is a company's market share too great? Would the court do the same thing to any other vendor in the same situation?
Enter the evil
Here's how you can still hate Microsoft and complain all day. Microsoft does indeed act like an asshole to any hardware vendor that wishes to provide operating system choice to their customers. Try buying a laptop that doesn't have Windows preinstalled. Whether you like it or not, you're paying for Windows with your hardware.
Even if Vista is a very shitty product, the computing world will undoutably be forced to adopt it and Microsoft will still make millions through OEM preinstalls. For all the talk of innovation, all Microsoft really needs to do is put a new skin on Windows XP and customers would be forced to pay top dollar for it. You are being screwed, so naturally you have a right if not an obligation to complain.
Who should we crucify?
But just who is responsible for the evil Microsoft monopoly? You. You bought and continue to use their products, jackass. Alternatives have existed for quite some time but you essentially bought the only car you test drove.
Quit buying crap if you don't want to have to deal with crap.
If you hate Microsoft, add to your agony and hate yourself while you're at it. Hate the assholes that absolutely must put every thought into a Word document. Hate the guy that plugs every Microsoft product he hears about. Hate the computer science students whose focus is so narrow that they don't learn anything beyond a MCSE certification.
The moral is the story is that if you're anything but indifferent about your software vendor, you've seriously fucked up somewhere. Get your head out of your ass.