Quote Originally Posted by caravel
They're cut-throat in their business approach and this is no reason to applaud or admire them.

M$ don't put out a quality product they merely got lucky back in the days of M$ DOS vs IBM DOS and as a result of this they can now force their software, which is mostly composed of a plaigarised concoction of other developers', down consumers throats.
BUT this is the issue, MS isn't the only one that is doing it, nor is it worst of breed. Virtually every large software and/or hardware company is trying to force their own standards and not use open standards. To point a finger at MS and ignore the rest doesn't show any insight at all nor will it remove the root cause.

Also as far as market dominance is concerned, MS didn't so much earn it as it was given it by its competitors... all of whom used far more restricted standards... something which MS continues to forget and hence hinder its own market share.

I find it funny that the ones who do the best are the most open and have a store front where you can buy it... a mix of old fashioned brick and mortar store where consumers can try out the product, a price tag attached (no one appreciates something they get for free) and the ability to use it with as much things as possible. USB devices is one of the growth areas in the world of computing... why because it is one of the most open standards.