Microsoft is great! Giving credit when due.
In response to Avinash’s post, I want to add my views.
Microsoft is great because:
Cheap PC and Windows Operating Systems
The effect of the Microsoft monopoly has quite some benefits to the consumers. When almost every desktop computers running Windows, this has helped to standardize the PC hardware and software industry. Before Microsoft, there would be dozens of operating systems, dozens of PC hardware and dozens of standards. Microsoft has helped the hardware and software industry more than anyone else. The open specifications supported by Microsoft have helped a new line of business. We now have motherboard makers like Asus, Gigabyte, Abit, MSI… You will never have an OEM Apple computer. Apple is a hardware company and makes money selling hip hardware. On the other hand, Microsoft is a software company and you will always find a Windows PC cheaper than an Apple PC. Software companies that have benefited from Windows are numerous. Any consumer software runs on Windows. The software companies have streamlined their development costs and know that they only have to focus on Windows. Windows XP was great. Windows Vista will be greater. I no longer have BSOD since XP. The BSOD is often related to bad drivers or bad hardware. It’s a thing of the past. The hardware are now certified by MS to work properly with Windows.
Office Productivity Software
I still maintain that Excel is a damn good software. It is robust and has some powerful statistics functions like pivot tables. Powerpoint has become the defacto presentation software. Word 2007 is quite an overhaul (with new format and interface). With the web and e-mail, I no longer need a word processor. If I ever need one, I use the free OpenOffice which does the job for me. In a corporate environment, workgroup software like Exchange/Outlook helps being productive. It is more than e-mail. It is about the collaborative tools such as calendaring and project management.
Xbox360
In the new generation of gaming console, there are only Xbox360 and PS3. Sony has dropped the ball regarding PS3 and their production difficulties. And Blu-ray is doomed, just like beta max videocassette. Xbox360 and PS3 are similar in terms of graphics performance. However, Microsoft has one year advance on Sony and has more consoles on the market. The game developers will focus on Xbox360 and the PS3 will remain the second choice. The Xbox story shows the determination of Microsoft to enter and conquer a market even without leverage. (it is not the case like Internet Explorer leveraging on Windows).
I do not necessarily agree with Microsoft and their often mob-like tactics. But I have more respect for Bill Gates than for Larry Ellison or Steve Jobs. I’ve said it. In the past 25 years, Microsoft is the major mover and shaker in the so-called computer industry. Now, Google is next in line to become the new Microsoft which for me is a badge of honour.
It’s very rare that I go to the movies. Since I had some extra free time today, I decided to check ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ with Will Smith. It is the biographical story of a man battling poverty, making ends meet, raising his child and working as a trainee at a stock brokerage firm in San Francisco. The movie is kind of depressing. I would thought it would focus more on being happy. It’s not. It’s about unhappy people wanting to be rich (or not wanting to be poor anymore). There is good acting from the Smiths (father & son). It is a sad, depressing movie. I need something to cheer me up.