Personally, I see Microsoft as one of America's greatest accomplishments (right up their with the light bulb, and space flight).

The chief complaint is about security, but when you look at it from a perspective of targeting, you see that it really handles security threats effectively. Most PC users utilize some form of Microsoft operating system as their main platform -even those that use Linux often resort to using Microsoft in multi-boot drives etc. The driving reasons for using Linux are three: 1) It's free; 2) it's more secure than Microsoft; and 3) few people really use it and being able to talk about you KDE desktop or updating your kernal is "elite."

But the security of Linux is due more to its popularity, which pales in comparison to MS. Once Linux becomes more widely used, security holes and flaws will be exploited by the so-called hackers. Already, there are companies that are charging for Linux distributions and support, and if the number of Linux users reaches a third of the MS users, the eliteness factor will have dwindled. Microsoft products will look like a bargain again.

Personally, I use Windows 2000 Professional with Opera 7.5. I keep IE updated and on standby, since there are certain applications and plugins that I like that don't work in Opera, like Adobe Acrobat (create pdf files from webpages), Fling-it for my Palm Pilot, etc. But I use Opera 98% of the time.

But I don't think Opera would be half the browser it is now if not for Microsoft's IE. The domination of IE makes developers of browsers like Opera, Firefox, etc. really think about ways to better serve their users and retake the market share. Opera has features I haven't even discovered yet. Hell, I just realized that I can search my email, RSS feeds, and newsgroup messages by keyword search! Opera's M2 mail is similar to Google's Gmail, except that everything is on your machine.

Ah, a fine discussion.

Bill Gates, i believe, was an amazing guy. Left college after 1st year, started building stuff in own garage, knew what people wanted, fantastic visions, and builded a software gigant. Along the way however views changed into lawyers etc etc. What are your views on microsoft and microsofts efforts in software at the moment.

I believe that posts stating "OMG I H8 MS KUZ AYE HAV A CRAPZORZ PCZORZ" will make you look very stupid. Same for "MS SUX LINUX ROX BUT I USE WINDOWS"

That said, making an OS aint easy and windows as beeing the most popular one got all the haxorz. activex components in internet explorer intended for extra browsing features were exploited for spyware use, and so on.
As for tabbed browsing, MS is a huge company and the bigger you get the harder to update because it reflects the entire company, so they'd rather let it be like it is. Still, 6 years for a big update (coming with longhorne) is a long wait.

MS acted like a jealous god and crushed other companies, in my opinion, too soon. They're also one of the few software companies pumping much money in R&D.

Summary; i do not hate them and windows is a fine product as is office, however more updates in their leaking IE should never take that long anymore. They even said to cripple IE (disable javascript?!?) for an exploit in JS. Longhorne looks fine, but will take a lil while...

Because i'm sure some will say get firefox i'll save them the effort. Use firefox. Or Avantbrowser (http://www.avantbrowser.com) like me (IE addon)

Well companies enjoy some benefits from one's R&D. Windows is based on R&D Xerox did years ago.

Longhorne will take a long while, and unfortunately they're cutting some features to reach that point, early 2006. They'll also release key features from longhorne which you can purchuse to update older windows versions.

I don't believe Linux will get that far, even though windows does cost a lot and compared to hardware getting cheaper and cheaper... Their "biggest" enemy for longhorne is themselves as Gates once said. They need to make something way better than XP so people would upgrade. Normally companies rig their products (leave some functions in it they already made) so its easier for them to make upgrades

The post order is mixed up due too your little problem (what was it all about anyway?) :D

Anyway, what I don't like about microsoft, is that it has a monopoly in the software buissines. I once read that 95% of the price you have to pay for windows is profit.

Originally posted by Mountainforest
what I don't like about microsoft, is that it has a monopoly in the software buissines. untrue. Macintosh has a lot more reign in software.

Thats not true Mountain. not at all. Its very hard to make an OS and costs a damn lot. They're still working on longhorn with all their men. They spent dozens of billions on R&D as well as i have said, which is more than the other 5 companies which spend the most on R&D combined.

To add an apple fact, Jobs is according to bussinussweek the 2nd highly paid CEO.

I really don't know much about it, I was just saying some thing I read somwhere :)