"I hate MS and they've stolen thousands from me over the years" I can honestly say my relationship has been anything but mutually beneficial with MS too... and

"I hate MS and they've stolen thousands from me over the years" I can honestly say my relationship has been anything but mutually beneficial with MS too... and I owe them a bit of gratitude for that. When I was a teenager in the 90's I wanted to learn programming, so I downloaded Visual Studio 6. I learned C++, and MFC. I gave them no money, but I still got my first marketable skill. Later I would go on to download SQL Server. I gave them no money, but in return, I learned SQL. Got pretty good at it. When my career progressed, my relationship with Microsoft started to become more mutually beneficial. Employers have purchased MSDN subscriptions on my behalf (the really expensive one!) I've pushed for SQL Server over alternatives. The better I knew the unique features of their products, the more it became my preference. I wrote .NET code for years, and have been responsible for my employers purchasing probably tens of thousands of dollars worth of licenses... for products that worked very well. Today I mostly work with open source software stacks, but I spent 10 years working with Microsoft, and I do owe them a bit of gratitude. They've improved my life for sure.