...tell us what you really feel!

Here's my theory about the source of Microsoft's success: consistent mediocrity.

Ya see, most of Bill's billions didn't come from you and me, it came from Corporate America. The "Enterprise" market; selling to other Fortune 500 companies. What a corporation values above all else is consistency and predictability...and sure as hell not excellence. Excellence is risky, and business is risk-averse. So Microsoft is the darling of business because, while it's products suck, they suck consistently. You can set your watch by Microsoft patches and security updates. And that's comforting to the Corporate IT Guy who answers to a pointy-haired boss who lacks the slightest clue about any of this technology stuff, wouldn't recognize excellence if it bit him in the ass, and cares only looking good to his boss. The Corporate IT Guy who is the modern inheritor of generations of Corporate IT Guys Past whose motto was "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". Different name, same worldview.

Then there's the pandering to that segment of Big Business that just loves the "digital rights management" (copy protection) features that are a big reason why Vista's a broken dog, the "recording" industry. Microsoft cheerfully screws its individual customers and ignores the pain, because it gives Hollywood a warm-and-fuzzy feeling to know that Microsoft is on the job policing their copyrights.

In other words, follow the money. Microsoft and Bill got fabulously wealthy selling crap. Why should they change?

Me, I think I'm on my last generation of Microsoft operating systems. My servers are running Windows 2000, which is scheduled to officially die late next year. Before then, I'll switch the servers over to Linux, which will be a massive job. Then it's my personal computers, which will be gnarly because of all the Windows software. I'm ready to get off the Microsoft treadmill.