4 ms·
Why is Microsoft Evil?
Microsoft is often described as evil on HN.
What has Microsoft done to deserve being labeled as evil?
- thesuperbigfrog 3y ago"Microsoft Loves Linux" now but before that they stated, "Linux is a Cancer" and treated it as such: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents Things have changed since then: https://www.idginsiderpro.com/article/3584911/how-microsoft-went-from-linux-is-a-cancer-to-microsoft-loves-linux.html https://www.idginsiderpro.com/article/3584911/how-microsoft-... You really had to be there to understand the emotions involved. It was like a real life version of Star Wars with the Rebel Alliance (GNU / Linux / BSD et al.) against the Galatic Empire (Microsoft). People protested and made it into a social movement that has since become mainstream: https://youtu.be/1j9j-Ywjmbk https://youtu.be/1j9j-Ywjmbk
- nickpeterson 3y agoMicrosoft is a company that in the past tried very hard to use their dominance in certain markets take over other markets. It’s hard for young people to understand how powerful Microsoft was as a company in the mid 90s.
- orionblastar 3y agoMicrosoft bundled apps like Media Player and Internet Explorer to take over markets of QuickTime and Netscape web browser.
- rolph 3y ago>> What has Microsoft done to deserve being labeled as evil? << https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft
- stop50 3y agoThey also used public standards and added propietary incompatible standards on it. outlook 365 requires changes to use smtp and imap that are not always compatibel with standard software. They "standartised" their xml based document standard (docx, ...) despite the open document standard already beeing standartised and impossible to implement for other developers except microsoft(modern office files are incompatible with the standard).
- mdp2021 3y ago> xml based document standard And how violently ugly are those file structures. (Compared, e.g., to .fodt)
- mdp2021 3y agoWe want our computing to be free. Monopolistic practices threatened that.
- appleflaxen 3y agoMicrosoft is a convicted monopolist. Other companies might have a monopoly on Web ads, but Microsoft has been convicted. That's amazing. And evil.
- endisneigh 3y agoNo
- simonblack 3y agoThey had a history of outright stealing of other companies' intellectual property. They had the habit of deliberately misleading people about other companies' products. Those of us who lived through the 90s lost all trust in Microsoft. They will never ever regain that trust. Some places to investigate for your own education: 'The Halloween Documents', 'AARD Code', 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish', 'STAC software stolen, DriveSpace released','Exclusionary Licensing', 'Sendo', 'XBox 360 Disk Failures Suppressed', 'Microsoft Litigation', etc, etc, etc. Here. I'll get you started with the 'Halloween Documents' - http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/ http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/