Redmond has giving up on TRYING to repair this OS that has stumbled to glory by fluke.

Now it has real competition with secure stable open source.

Microsoft started out by squashing competition in every arena they could until they were above and beyond the most dominant force in the computer industry.

They received a slap on the wrist from the Government and continue to dominate...

The reason that people continue to go with upgrades and new versions of software like Office is because they don't have a choice. If you want to interoperate in the business world today you do it via Microsoft products.

Microsoft is a convicted monopolist with profits several times the average for corporations. Please don't wonder how they do it - it's a continuing criminal enterprise.

There are as many MS zealots as there are Linux ones. Just look in any corporate IT department, mine included, and find a bunch of MCSEs who refuse to deploy Open Source software for certain functions where it quite clearly outperforms MS products - purely because those same people are too afraid to learn something new.

Remember that a lot of Linux people, myself included, migrated from Windows by choice and can happily make rational comparisons between Windows and Linux. Most Windows people never touch Linux yet feel qualified to form opinions based on FUD and rumour rather than from personal experience.

Believe me, I'd love to fully ditch Windows tomorrow because I hate using the products of a convicted monopolist - but the fact is, for the 20% of my computing time when I play games and use some specific Windows apps, I still use Windows 2000.

For me personally, Linux is the way forward but I am not going to "cut my nose off to spite my face".

I havent spent that much on Microsoft. When I built my computer I bought a copy of XP Home and haven't given them another dime.

I've actually spent more on multiple Linux distributions. Of course thats because I was curious and doing my own price comparison.

I'll actually spend more money to keep my iBook updated with OS upgrades coming out every year. Don't get me wrong I think the price is worth it for all of these products but I was just interested on how little I have spent with MS.

No don't use Office.

Yes I know MS makes tons from corporations.

I used to temp for MS from 1998-2000, I was a bus rider and the traffic was so bad from Redmond to Seattle that some employees would cruise the bus stops asking for a third person to qualify for the car pool lane. If you didn’t take the HOV lane, it would add 45 to 90 minutes to your commute.

One time I got a ride with someone from accounting. The conversation must have been started about how they posted record profits that day and he was all giddy about it. He went on about how they withhold money back in some financial quarts in order to show off record results in another. I’m sure this has become familiar with many people over the 90s that once or twice a year MS would post record profits. The sole purpose would be to drive up the price of the stock. I laughed and asked him if it were legal, he said that not only was it legal, but very common in the industry. What he was doing wasn’t any different from what other companies did during the dot com explosion.

I haven’t temped there in a while, im not sure how things are in the labs or meeting rooms. Everyone benefits from a higher stock price, but im thinking this may be to keep their talent from jumping ship. Back in the mid to late 90s, a program manger or developer could be expected to work there for 7 years, then cash in all their stock options and retire at the ripe old age of 30. Its obviously not like that now because the stock price is lower and has been like that for several years. Investors really aren’t that worried about the stock price, they are in it for the long term investment. But not the workers! Oh no, they want to work that 7 years and get the hell out of dodge and its the stock options that really keeps a MS employee working there. I've heard it from a few developers that if it wasn’t for the stock options, they would quit their jobs in a heartbeat.

The Register is suggesting that $1.5 billion of the increase in profit is due to a $1.5 billion reduction in R&D (http://www.theregister.co.uk/) - Wonder what long term effect halving the R&D budget will have on future MS technology?

I'm glad they're doing so well. And I'm glad Mac OSX and Linux are doing well too.

This is probably one reason why Microsoft is increasing office space (a good hint at increased hiring if they're making room for thousands of extra workers).

When will people stop wishing for the failure of others and start wishing for the success of their choosing?

I once attended a technical presentation about OSS, and I recalled some interesting facts.

Even during the most difficult of economic times, Microsoft has made billions.

Even when tech companies are in a slump, and businesses fold left and right, MS continues to rake in the dough.

So where does this money come from?

"IT CAME FROM YOU!" said the presenter.

Yes, while your companies are struggling to make a penny or two, MS just leeches off of you with their Windows licenses and forced upgrades. Face it, you get little in return for every new version of Windows you buy. Win2K to WinXP was just a hideous facelift.

Yet people still pay through the nose for Windows. It's inexplicable.

Hopefully this is a good sign for the IT industry. Medium range and high end products are being sold at higher levels. That means more people are needed to support them. Unless you work for my company which has been ordering new Dell Windows 2003 servers and then expecting their lone MCSE certified loser (me) to support them all...

|||"Listening to Microsoft's earnings report yesterday was like watching Michael Jordan play basketball at the height of his career." |||

Hehe, what does that make Larry Ellison's performance,also this week. Like watching O.J. guiltily tearing down the highway maybe?