Dear Microsoft, This is why you are hated infoworld.com
It's the weekend, so the infoworld pundits get to say their piece for the week. If I were in the press division, I wouldn't title a column like this. One of the Microsoft company lines that bugs me most is that any criticism of the greatest company in the history of the known universe makes you a Microsoft hater. But anyway, there you go. There's apparently an unnumbered top ten list here, I won't hit them all, but too many as usual.
Nobody likes big, rich, know-it-alls who keep telling everyone else how great their lives are going to be.
That goes for the canonical Microsoft investors too.
People want to feel as though they have a choice. Because Microsoft products are the de facto standard, many people are forced to work with them when they don't want to. This includes both operating systems and applications. Making people do things they don't want to do is a good way to nurture hate.
But, Microsoft is taking us where we want to go! It's giving the customers what they want! Like that crufty old retail Windows95 that's the best seller! What's with those blockhead OEMs anyway. Funny how no matter how many times I throw that one out, nobody wants to touch it. Bill even picked it up and used it as a defense of the middle finger legal strategy. That and the much traveled Chrysler car radio, of course. Very innovative, that.
"If you're so damn smart, why does my computer crash?" People get tired of hearing how cutting edge Microsoft is when the computers on their desks don't even seem to be behaving properly.
No comment.
Your business strategy appears to be: Buy -- If you can't buy, crush. Just to be clear, this is not seen as friendly nor innovative.
But, it's standard Microsoft business practice, of course. It's also been cited as an antitrust defense, or at least a rational for the raised middle finger strategy. Not that I particularly expect Microsoft or any big, successful company to be friendly beyond the PR level, but the PR level with Microsoft is so omnipresent. . . Bill warm and fuzzy with Barbara Walters, Bill the humble programmer blindsided by Washington politics. Who's buying this?
Of course, you got these polls showing everybody loves Microsoft. The polls also show Bill Clinton with higher approval ratings than ever. Somehow, I don't think many of the people heartened by the first polls put much stock in the latter, but whatever. Everybody constructs their own reality. Me, I'm still intrigued by the Merril Lynch CIO poll.
Cheers, Dan. |
