It's important for every IT professional to state at the outset, how they feel about Microsoft. I'll leave it up to the reader as to why this is so.

At the time of this writing, my favorite Microsoft joke, lifted from whatreallyhappened.com:

while(we feel like it){
input();
callMagicElves();
runadsforupgrades();
sleep(rand(20));
if(work == reallyimportant) dumpcore();
if(timesincelastbackup > 1 week) dumpcore();
output();
} // end loop

I assume the above represents the main program loop in the typical MS software product :).

For all my bitching about MS -- yes, I bitch about MS often, usually in the form a mutterings under my breath, and sometimes not so quietly, but usually not all that publicly, usually to myself, and comments made in private -- I owe a lot to them I should think, and I'll tell you why.

If it were not for MS I'd most likely have never gotten into computer programming at all. Until the advent of something like Windows 3 -- I know, Zerox and all that -- I didn't much want to go near a computer. This was mostly because I didn't know how to type -- though now that I do, I often prefer the command line over the graphical interface.

At the beginning of 1992, as sort of Christmass present to myself, I used college expense loan money to buy a 386DX -- around 1400.00 US -- with Windows 3.0 I believe -- I'm using that same - upgraded muchly over the years - computer right now. Then a good friend of mine -- a lifelong "geek" who is now a physicist with a master degree -- was over one evening, and showed me that I could write computer programs using the qbasic interpreter that came with the MS operating system -- we wrote, the obligatory geek computer program, a prime number generator, the beginnings of which, I "ran" with, and exists to this day, complete with file i/o (and other options) so that calculations can be paused and restarted (download here). Well, quite literally, from there, I was hooked, and I became a programmer, and quite the geek (sort of) -- which was always latent in my personality anyway.

A couple months later I bought a copy of MS' qbasic version that, unlike the one that came with the operating system, could compile code into .exe form. And it wasn't long after that, I stepped up to the MS Basic Professional Development System -- QB7, basically qbasic, with some extensions, and additional capabilities.

Next, I started taking computer programming, and related classes in the computer science department at the university where I was majoring in Psychology. And after my psych degree, I began on a certificate in computer science for graduate students -- I all but finished it, with two classes -- some statistics, and an additional mathematics elective -- left uncompleted.

Now, if not for MS, it's likely none of this would have happened. I remeber MS programming products being well documented, and the tutorials easy to follow. I was in tune with the spirit of the way MS was teaching. It was as if they knew me, like they were a good friend, lending a helping hand. Like a caring mentor, using MS programming products help develop, and foster my love of programming, my craft.

So, in short, that's what I like about MS. It's why, though I might often say it, I don't really hate MS.

Microsoft? Yeah. I know Microsoft. They're an old buddy of mine.

However, I will say, after having just installed Visual Studio .net, they are an obnoxious company that just begs to be cursed. And I flash on that bald headed maniac Steve Balmer. What a spittle lipped, horse breathed lunatic. What has set me off is the product activation crap they've built into the program. So what? Now, everytime I want to reinstall, I have to call home to daddy to make sure it's okay? Don't know. But, in any case, once is enough. MS is just too invasive with their customers. It borders on abuse, extortion, or some such. There's no wonder so many IT profs hate MS. They just beg for it. Again, bottom line is, they're f'n obnoxious.