Why I dislike Microsoft

Do I dislike Microsoft?

There are many people who hate Microsoft fundamentally. They build conspiracy theories. They plot the downfall of the company. They seek to replace it. They spread the worst evils of Microsoft's past. Somehow, they feel that if only Microsoft were gone, life would be better. Whether things would be better or not, they cannot know, but they believe it.

There are those who love Microsoft. They ignore any evil done by the company, and they believe that choices in design, marketing, and development are excellent. They would put the blame for problems on the heads of the enemies of the company, and on developers who don't follow proper practices. They seek to protect the company at every step.

I dislike absolutes. When you deal with absolutes, odds are that you are wrong. And anyway, Microsoft is not Evil. It is not capable of being evil. It is a corporation, and as such, ambivalent to either goodness or evilness. They simply are not capable of it. So why should I hate Microsoft? They are not evil. They are simply capitalist.

However, they are not out to protect anyone except their bottom line. They are after money. Microsoft and its employees will do what they think best to earn the most money. Unfortunately, some of what they are willing to do is actually quite unfortunate. If you want something bad enough, there is a good chance that you will become a bully, willing to do whatever it takes, and hurt anybody in your way. If they do this, does that make Microsoft evil? Not really, however evil their methods.

The things they have been doing, though, deserve comment. Looking back now at Windows Phone 7, it is basically a flop of a product. It didn't sell, except for a handful here and there. They may be fighting to bring it back, but really, it hasn't gained traction, and there is nothing drawing people to it. It simply exists by itself. So in order to make up for it, they seem to have decided to do what they can to gouge the competition. They are charging you and I to use somebody else's software, namely Android. The curious thing about how is by going to companies, threatening lengthy court battles, and forcing them to not tell anybody else about it so that each company using Android has to fight on their own. Whether or not it would stand up in court doesn't matter, because most companies can't afford the fight as long as Microsoft can. Yet they're trying to get every Android device manufacturer to do it. Why not Apple? Because Apple is bigger than Microsoft now. They may sell fewer PCs, but they sell at a higher profit thanks to Vertical Integration and more entertainment devices. And why are they not suing Google directly? Google would fight them, and their patents might not be up to the task of an actual court battle. If they lost, they would never be able to even hint that Linux infringes on their Patents, because the Linux Kernel is part of the Android Kernel.

So it's simply a tactic in bullying, and I do not approve of that. I do not approve of paying Microsoft in order to use somebody else's product. And that is why I dislike Microsoft.