4 ms·

Time heals all wounds. Microsoft is like a senior citizen with a dark criminal past. We look at him and seem somebody who is feeble and harmless, and forget t

by glonq 11y ago

Time heals all wounds. Microsoft is like a senior citizen with a dark criminal past. We look at him and seem somebody who is feeble and harmless, and forget that he's served time for rape and murder. Google is young and fit and strong. Sometimes he's so brash and clueless that he steps on people and they get hurt. We are more concerned about his potential for wrongdoing than for whatever bad things he has actually done. IMO, Microsoft has far more real, tangible crimes and misdeeds in their past than Google has.

dTal 11y ago
It's a common meme nowadays that Microsoft's crimes are deep in the misty past, that their domination is over, and that they seem to have turned over a new leaf. It's true that they have failed (despite their best efforts) to secure hegemony in the "new world" computing paradigm, which has proportionally weakened their influence (as many people actively use smartphones and tablets who would not bother with a traditional laptop). The server space they never really truly owned. But they still have a virtual stranglehold on general-purpose computing. Microsoft Office is still "standard". 3rd party "industry standard" software like 3ds Max is Windows-only. Niche industrial hardware comes with Windows-only drivers. When you can walk into PC World and walk out with a beefy top-spec computer that doesn't run Windows, then we may talk of Microsoft's fall from power. Not before. As for crimes, they haven't stopped: to this day they win government contracts through bribery (just google 'Microsoft bribery'). Then there's their documented collusion with the NSA, in particular the whole business with buying and MITMing Skype. And have we so quickly forgotten SecureBoot?