Bill Gates

[hot_pastrami]

Well, I think Bull Gates is hated more than anything because he is the icon for a company very deserving of the public's animosity. I've worked in many areas of the computer business for many years, from tech support to software development, and I have developed some interesting views on the behemoth company.

1. Microsoft has become big enough that they no longer ask their customers what they want... Microsoft TELLS their customers what they want. There's no viable alternative for most people to turn to, so they just live with it.

2. Security... not just in the major-security-fix-of-the-week variety, which in all fairness is probably an effect caused by the fact that 99% of hackers are picking on Windows over other OSes... but just little things too. For instance, why is every application's installer freely allowed to insert things into the Startup without the user's permission?

3. Ownership... Microsoft is moving more and more to a paradigm where software is not something we buy, but something we lease the priveledge to use. Their license agreement for Windows XP states that one can only sell the software license one time, it cannot be sold again after that. And the Windows XP activation treats all of their honest customers like crooks, without actually stopping the real "software pirates."

4. As advances in processors are made, Microsoft seems to think it is their personal responsibility to suck up all those extra CPU cycles with questionably useful OS features.

I could go on and on, but I won't. Life is too short to waste time doling out criticism to someone who can't (or won't) use it constructively. I like Windows XP as a product, it's generally a good operating system and is pretty stable. But Microsoft the company, I despise. And because the company is helmed by Bill Gates, he gets a special little piece of that resentment.

I actually use my PowerMac more than I use my PC these days. Hmm. If Microsoft is the answer, it must have been a stupid question.