Has microsoft done anything good for the computer industry?

[dmcfarland]

We all know microsoft is a pile of crap. I have finnally made the move to Liunux and my pc is ms free. This website is dedicated to trashing microsoft rightly so.

I am curious to know if Microsoft has contributed anything good and worthwhile in the computer industry. I am in no way advocating for Microsoft, but It would be a good thing to take a balanced look at micosoft and how its spurned other alternatives if anything.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Something M$ has done that is truly good ... hmmmm, I'll have to ponder a while on that one, I mean what are the chances a company that is motivated by greed and lust for power doing something "good" ... declaring DRM as anti-consumer was not bad, but their motives are flawed ... that's what makes them bad. In the Kantian sense of good, absolutely nothing M$ does can be good as long as it is motivated by greed and lust for power.

[piratePenguin]

They basically invented the modern office suite AFIAK.*










That's all I can think off.


*Hopes to be told he's wrong about this one.

[WMD]

Has microsoft done anything good for the computer industry?

Yes.

Before Microsoft, software was a "vertical" industry - you got all your software from the same place you got your hardware.  Period.  Either that, or you developed it yourself.  There weren't any really "software companies."

But MS changed that with their first release, Altair BASIC.  Its popularity encouraged programmers to start software companies, and sell directly.  There was real competition.

Of course, MS has since been trying to make themselves that single source of software of yesteryear, but that's not the point.

There's also Minesweeper.

[Aloone_Jonez]

They basically invented the modern office suite AFIAK.*

I'm not too sure about this one - having to buy a whole Office suite when all you require is a spreadsheet isn't a good thing.

[piratePenguin]

I'm not too sure about this one - having to buy a whole Office suite when all you require is a spreadsheet isn't a good thing.

Yes but OOo, etc. would've taken ideas from Microsoft Office.

[Aloone_Jonez]

OpenOffice is an MS Office rip-off which is a Wordperfect, Lotus and (I don't know what else) rip-off.

WMD is right, MS did do one good thing and that's break the link between the software vendor and the machine. Who knows what things would be like if MS never existed? We'd be probably be all using Macs now and we'd probably a lot worse off for it too so we should thank MS for saving us from Apple. I'm not being sarcastic, I'm deadly serious because Apple ruling would be a lot worse than Microsoft.

[piratePenguin]

So did Microsoft ever actually try to do anything good for the computer industry that wasn't really only for the benefit of themselves?

I guess that's to be expected from any major corporation.


So guess who's gonna have to do the really good stuff?

[dmcfarland]

Open Office seems like its based on Star Office than it does MS Orifice. I learned on WP 5.1 and lotus 123. Its a shame that MS pushed Lotus off of the map.

OpenOffice is an MS Office rip-off which is a Wordperfect, Lotus and (I don't know what else) rip-off.

[dmcfarland]

Microsoft spurred others to creat OS's like Beos and others that will someday be competing with Microsoft. I dont think Macs are bad Pc'S. It wouldnt be as bad if MS didnt practice gestope like tactics to become the turd that floats to the top of the bowl. MS products would be better if they has to compete with other OS's for business.

Microsofts crapiness has been a great motivator for others to come up with alternatives. Microsoft in a perverse way has been a good thing in the regard for the computer industry.

[piratePenguin]

They make millions of people upgrade their hardware every so often!

[dmcfarland]

Doesnt linux require ppl to upgrade in order to make it functional for regular use?

They make millions of people upgrade their hardware every so often!

[Aloone_Jonez]

Open Office seems like its based on Star Office than it does MS Orifice.

Yes, Star Office = OpenOffice (all one word) but Sun have copied many things from MS Office - like the user interface for example.

I dont think Macs are bad Pc'S.

No doubt Macs would've taken off since they were the due to having the most user friendly OS of the time. Apple leading things would be worse than Microsoft because they wouldn't just own the OS but the hardware too, secret instructions would make it damn near impossible for a competitor to create a clone or write a competing OS for it, and as piratePeguin said they could charge what they like for the hardware and make people upgrade often. Yes Apple ruling would be very bad indeed but they're not thank Microsoft.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Doesnt linux require ppl to upgrade in order to make it functional for regular use?

But you can upgrade it for free and if it's a payware distro you can tell them to fuck off and go elsewhere which you can't do with Windows.

[piratePenguin]

Doesnt linux require ppl to upgrade in order to make it functional for regular use?

If I was using Windows, I would want XP so I can get IE7 when it's released. I've used Windows on this system and it wasn't increadibly pretty (i.e. fast/snappy) (not as pretty as GNOME on GNU/Linux is), I would really want another 256MB RAM (so I'd have 512MB altogether).

On GNU/Linux, I can use the latest Firefox on Slackware 8 (probably). If Firefox sucks on my 32MB RAM system, I can use dillo.

EDIT: http://www.microsuck.com/content/whatsbad.shtml#upgrade