Today’s topic is “Why all the hating”? By which I mean, why do so many people “hate” Microsoft and what should Microsoft do about it? The reason I bring this up is that I am consistently amazed at how vehemently many people hate Microsoft and their products. I don’t personally understand the psychology behind much of this behavior, but it’s very widespread in the technical community. One visit to Slashdot will illustrate this truth.
What I have ascertained is that there appears to be several groups of ABM’ers (ABM=Anything But Microsoft). These people seem to break down into the following groups:
1. Linux zealots – people who genuinely believe that Linux is the greatest operating system platform of all time and have a deep technical affinity for the platform. Ultimately their motives and reasons for hating the empire center around a belief that Microsoft makes technically inferior products while attempting to subvert the success of a technically superior alternative.
2. OSS/GNU zealots – people who believe in the bazaar, not the cathedral (http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/index.html#catbmain). These people feel that Open Source software is not just a model for developing software, they feel it breeds innovation and freedom of ideas. To these true believers in OSS, Microsoft is not just an anti-competitive monopolist, but a company that attempts to undermine the very foundation of the Open Source “movement”.
3. Anti-big business/free market/etc. – this group is among the hardest to define as they sometimes also fall into groups 1 and/or 2 (though certainly not always). These people hate Microsoft because Microsoft symbolizes the antithesis of their sociopolitical views. Much of the time the quality of Microsoft’s products are almost irrelevant, it is Microsoft as the evil corporation that is at issue.
4. Corporate evangelists – people employed by a large corporate entity with a strong vested interest in promoting some product or platform that competes directly with Microsoft’s offerings. These people often borrow the arguments established by those in groups 1 and 2, but are rarely the true believers.
5. Slashdot wannabes – this is the really annoying group of ABM’ers. Many of these people can barely keep their own computers running, but are very often the loudest and most vocal Microsoft bashers. This group has only superficial technical knowledge of Linux and Windows, but wishes to be seen as more technically proficient and therefore advocates Linux. What is astonishing is how few of these people actually use Linux (or any non-MS platform) day-to-day.
Now, some may find my statements insulting, however they are not intended to be (well, except for number 5, I really hate that particular group). The list above is based on simple observation. What is interesting to note though, is that no other single company in the world has such a widespread and complicated image problem. Microsoft is attacked by all these people, all the time.
If I were Microsoft, I would look carefully at my list above, because MS has done a terrible job of addressing the negative images presented by these groups. In fact, the situation has only gotten worse for MS in the last few years. This constant din of negativity eventually begins to rub-off on those who don’t necessarily have any predisposition for disliking Microsoft and as a result, Microsoft’s image among even the average user becomes skewed in a completely unrealistic manner. When this occurs at the management level, it leads to technical decision making that’s based, at least partly, on emotion and half truths. Combine this with the technical evangelists from competitors and the situation for Microsoft starts looking pretty dicey. In short, anyone at Microsoft who believes that the vocal drumming that MS receives isn’t having a serious long-term negative effect is just not living in the real world.
I am not saying Microsoft hasn’t created a large part of this problem themselves. MS has at times flushed some real garbage into the marketplace. I personally believe that had it not been for the Windows 9x line of Operating Systems, Microsoft’s image today would be far better. Combine past product missteps, a never ending security battle, some very heavy handed business tactics and actions that often display a very myopic view of the world and it is easy to see why Microsoft’s adversaries have so much verbal ammunition.
That said, Microsoft also produces some truly excellent software. Products like Windows Server 2003 (including AD), Microsoft Identity Integration Server (the single most innovative Directory Service product in years), Windows XP SP2 and Office 2003 are just a few of their more outstanding products. Microsoft employs some of the most brilliant technologists in the industry; people like David Cutler (RSX11m, VMS, NT) and Dr. Richard Rashid (father of the Mach Kernel now head of MS R&D).
Microsoft needs to spend more time touting their products, more time and effort celebrating their employees and a LOT more time and money fostering the growth of the small (but extremely important) community of Microsoft product enthusiasts. Microsoft needs to face the ABM’ers not through sponsored (and possibly rigged) product studies and other meaningless marketing nonsense, but by building a community of people who can speak for Microsoft in legitimate terms and help really advocate their products. While it wouldn’t change the perception problem overnight, it would at least give Microsoft a real shot at combating a problem that is far more serious than any actual technical shortcomings in their products.
Until Next Time – Cheerio
P.S. Yes, I know I still haven’t posted that Samba/AD/IDMAP howto yet, I am waiting on some “okays” on publishing it (given that my company funded my time) and I hope to run it past the Samba documentation folks. It will probably be posted in the first week of January. If you are really interested in reading it, post-back an e-mail address and I will get it over to you.
