I was at a Honors Banquet last week at my University, and the prof in charge asked us all to stand up and tell a bit about ourselves. One freshman stood up and announced that she's an MIS major, and her plans for the future include "bringing down Microsoft". Everyone laughed, and comments of "I hate Microsoft" and "Bill Gates sucks" spread across the room. Now, I know this MIS girl. The only OS she knows how to use is Windows (if you can call it an OS). She couldn't use Unix, Linux, or even MacOS if she had to. I'd be surprised if she could run a Commodore 64 or an Apple.

It is now cool to hate Microsoft. But what's the point if you don't know how to use anything else? I don't hate Microsoft. Bill Gates did not eat my balls (I never had any to begin with). Microsoft, as a corporation, has done nothing to hurt me personally. I don't like Windows much, but then again, I don't use it. There's my protest. It's the most effective protest there is: if you don't like a product, don't use it.

I dislike the anticompetetive practices Microsoft uses, but I see this as a larger problem with our economy. I don't blame Microsoft; I blame consumerism and the particular brand of capitalism the US has adopted. Microsoft simply takes advantage of these things. I think society is to blame, as well, since they have a resistance to learn anything new or difficult, like another OS. Do you hate Microsoft? Then don't use their products. Period.
Unfortunately, not all of us has the luxury of ignoring Microsoft Products because of their prescience. Remember IBM's OS/2? Their operating system was much more technically advanced than MS Windows 95 at that time. It allowed for more technical control and the OS did not crash at all, unlike WIN 95.

The reason behind IBM's failure is lack of marketing, lack of knowledge in how to present a superior product to the public, as well as lack of prescience. OS/2 pretty much died at the drafting table.

As for Linux, since I don't know much about the technical aspects of it, I can't really say anything about it. But from a public perspective, one can say that as of now, Linux is still an underground operating system that needs more publicity.

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