The Customer Is Always Suspect, and Business Partners Stay Nervous
Being treated as a potential pirate may be a necessary concomittant of doing business with Microsoft, but did you know that the policy is actually a special benefit for you, the paying customer? Or that the diffidence of the company's hardware partners toward competing software has nothing to do with intimidation? Just ask Microsoft.
4. That "This Is for Your Own Good" Attitude
We don't blame Microsoft for getting agitated over the fact that Windows is among the most-pirated applications on the planet. We're okay with its minions' trying to stop that. But the Windows Genuine Advantage copy protection system it came up with has a nasty habit of causing problems for people who own legitimate copies of the software. And the most aggravating part is the marketing campaign for "the WGA experience," which insists that going through this hassle is a big fat benefit for us, the users. As if we're all losing sleep over the remote possibility that our copy of Windows is counterfeit.
WGA would seem a little less painful if Microsoft treated its paying customers like grownups and simply said, "We're sorry to make you jump through these hoops, but it helps us prevent people from stealing our software."
5. The Big Chill
Microsoft exists because 32 years ago, a college student succeeded in selling the idea of a new product--BASIC--to the market. But once the business took off, it strong-armed its partners into refraining from offering competing software from the next wave of small, innovative companies. Though the government's antitrust proceedings seem to have mellowed the giant's behavior, we get the feeling that an implicit chilling effect remains.
Most computer sellers just can't risk angering the 800-pound gorilla. If that weren't still an element in their calculus, would it have taken companies like Dell this long to offer systems loaded with Linux?
6. Bill Gates: Bad Role Model
He leaves Harvard before he earns his degree, and now he's the world's second richest man. His example is an encouragement to college dropouts everywhere. Kids, don't follow!
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