Stop hating Microsoft?

The post above asks some of us to stop hating MS, saying that "What really pisses me off are hardcore Linux maniacs who keep attacking Microsoft software! It's really a turn-off to see someone attacking software that has been serving people for a solid decade...."

I don't often rail on MS here, because I think it's counter-productive, but I'm going to put in my 20 Korean won here.

There are rabid MS haters and there are people like me who just distrust them.

Let me guess. You are young. You grew up in an MS environment.

Those of us who are old enough to remember computing before MS had a lock on everything are the people who most want to see MS drop in market share -- 60% would be enough to make everything even.

We watched MS kill off great software. We watched them promise new features to keep people from moving to other software, then never delivering those features. We watched them lie in the press and on the stand. Many of the "haters" on the internet were developers for companies that MS knifed, often using unethical means. Sure, MS has paid out numerous times, but the dead are dead and can't be revived.

But most of all, we saw a diverse computing ecosystem become a sick, limping monoculture which moved forward at a fraction of the pace it would have with real competition.

MS has been so bad to some of us for so long that getting into our good graces is not likely to happen soon, and certainly not with their historical behavior continuing the way is still is.

Ask me to stop distrusting MS? You might as well ask Tibetans to just forgive China and knuckle under like good little serfs. It's not going to happen.