M$--bad.
Microsoft has:
1) Bullied and threatened hardware and software makers in such a way to edge out other software companys' products. They have used their position in the market to kill competition in ways other than as defined in the market (i.e., if you have a better, or cheaper, or better and cheaper product, you tend to win more market share). That is the very definition of a predatory monopoly, which is illegal. Even after this anti-trust case wrapped up, Microsfot continues to pull the same crap. Historical examples: Netscape v. Explorer. Current examples: Windows Media player v. Real player, Quicktime; .Net v. Java. I respect M$'s extreme desire to "win"--but there are rules. And M$ breaks them with impunity and should be brought to task.
2) Lied to its customers (about the stability and functionality of its software); lied to the government under oath (Bill Gates and his employees were caught in several lies on the record to a federal court of law). Yet they have not been brought up on fraud or perjury charges--a shame, really, and an indictment of the judiciary.
At least the school plan was not approved.
And here's the danger--M$ has finally released a stable OS--Win XP. True, it is riddled with security problems and has a fascist registration policy. But by every account, it is stable and fast, and compatible with older software.
You people bitching about paying taxes to bring CRIMINALS to justice ought o be ashamed of yourselves. The ONLY reason M$ is still around is because, to date, we have not stood up and held M$ accountable for its actions. We must do so now, though it may be too late. M$ has a strangle-hold on the home and office markets, and is successfully converting an OS to a service (yearly subscritption) rather than a good (buy it once and use it until you feel like upgrading).
Someone with $$ and smart people (How about IBM? or Apple?) needs to reverse engineer Windows 98 and release a cheaper OS that runs legacy Windows apps. without paying a fee to M$. I predict that such a company could make a killing. If Apple did it, they could finally be a player--Mac OS X with an app that runs M$ applications, but without a true emulator like VPC, which pays a licensing fee to Gates.
