I realize that there are many people out there who dislike Microsoft but how many of you know the contributions that it has made to improve our lifestyle?

A lot can be said about Microsoft but there is one fact we cannot deny without Microsoft our life would be very different today.    Let consider some of the contributions from Microsoft.

Computers Everywhere

Without Microsoft, many of us would not be have computers we have at our home today.  Although it is true that Apple introduced the Personal computer but look at the pricing and how they control the computers.  Had we left it to the way Apple markets the personal computer, it would still be a luxury enjoyed by select few.   It is the vision of Bill Gates in mass marketing that managed to get the computers affordable to majority. 

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Many will still say that the pricing is still high but we must remember that Microsoft is a business and it needs profit to survive.  Too many of us wants things for free!

Choices and Predatory Pricing

So many companies claim that Microsoft’s predatory pricing and approach caused them to go out of business.  How fast they forget that the market would not have existed if Microsoft did not create the market in the first place.  Products which once loved like WordStar, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 once dominated the market.  Look at these companies did they fail because of Microsoft or because they failed to keep up with the market. 

It is true that there are some that may be caused by Microsoft.  One such company I can think of is Netscape but they evolved and have become stronger – they are now under Mozilla Foundation.

Hey, they say business is war.  A lot of strategies used by Microsoft can be traced back to “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.

Programming and Automation

Just as in getting computers to the mass, it also allowed a lot of people to learn programming.  Even now, it is relatively easy to write vbscript to automate a lot of our routine work.  With simplified recording of what we do in Office, we can easily automate charts and daily reporting.  It is not necessary to be a programmer to perform these task.  Of course, there are still complicated task that require more technical professionals to do.   But that is the case in all areas – most people can ride bicycles but it takes some additional skills to perform stunts.

Windows Everywhere

Do you realize that Windows is everywhere?  I see it in our ATM machines, in our elevators, in some of our phones.  Windows are embedded in many of the machines that we have without realizing it.  I know that because in some of the machines our vendors sold to our factory, they actually loaded embedded Windows to power them.

Other OS and choices

Nowadays, we have choices of many Office like software and a host many different kinds of Operating System.  Why?  A lot of this has to do with the demand but more importantly is due to the fact that Microsoft has shown that there is a viable market for all these products.

Reputation

A lot of bad reputation Microsoft gets is no fault of theirs.  The fact that they come up with the operating system and allow other vendors to come out with the hardware.  In many cases, the vendors chose to play hardball and refuse to be good partners and this in turn affects the whole experience.  Also because there is so many types of combination of hardware and software that needs to be supported, it is just too difficult to please everyone. 

Take example, online games.  Online games like Maplestory, Sudden Attack insist in taking over your PC as an administrator.  This makes playing the game on Vista to be challenging.  Challenging for parents like myself who wants to use the parent control to limit my children’s play time. 

Windows is actually a pretty good OS but a lot of hardware vendors are being paid to install trial software on the PC/Notebooks they sell.  All these add load to the system and causes it to be unstable.  Imagine you buy a car and the seller insist in adding all sorts of accessories into it that will simply drain your battery.  This happens for some brands I know but that is happening more frequently on the computer.

Conclusion

You may love or hate Microsoft but you can’t deny that they have enriched your life.

Image via CrunchBase