Microsoft - History, Product divisions, Business culture, User culture, Criticism

A computer company which came into prominence with the design and supply of the operating system (MS-DOS) for the IBM personal computer. The system is supported by spreadsheet and word-processing packages and more recently by the Windows application software. During the 1990s, Microsoft became the world's leading computer company, and found itself having to defend its practices when the US government brought an initially successful anti-trust (monopoly) action against it in 1999, arguing that Microsoft unfairly used the dominance of its Windows computer operating system to squeeze out smaller rivals. In 2000 a judge ordered that Microsoft be split into two companies. This ruling was overturned in June 2001 by the US Court of Appeals, and later that year Microsoft and the Justice Dept. agreed on a settlement, though a group of states continued to press for tougher penalties. In November 2003 Microsoft faced a European challenge in Brussels along similar lines, and in March 2004 a record fine of ?497.2 million was imposed on the company for using its near-monopoly dominance in European markets to eliminate competition unfairly.

Type	Public (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Founded	Albuquerque (April 4, 1975)
Headquarters	Redmond, Washington, USA
Key people	Bill Gates, Co-founder and Executive Chairman Paul Allen, Co-founder Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect
Industry	Computer hardware Computer software Publishing Research and development Television Video games
Products	Microsoft Windows Microsoft Office MSNBC Xbox Xbox 360 (See complete listing.)
Revenue	US$44.28 billion (2006)
Operating income	US$16.47 billion (2006) (36.3% operating margin)
Net income	US$12.6 billion (2006) (31.6% net margin)
Employees	71,553 (2006)
Website	www.microsoft.com

The Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44.28 billion and 71,553 employees in 102 countries as of July 2006. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its best selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of which has achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and MSN TV.

Microsoft's name, originally bi-capitalized as MicroSoft or with hyphenation as Micro-Soft, is a portmanteau of "microcomputer software" and is often abbreviated as MS. After the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones in the mid-1980s, Microsoft used its new position, which it gained in part due to a contract from IBM, to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS, which stood for Microsoft Disk Operating System. In Microsoft Windows, originally an add-on for MS-DOS, the company was selling what would become the most widely used operating system in the world; Microsoft continued to push into multiple markets, such as computer hardware and television. In addition, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.

With what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has become widely known for some of its internal codes of conduct for its employees. Microsoft has been convicted of monopolistic business practices — the U.S. Justice Department, among others, has sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and software bundling. The slogan "embrace, extend, and extinguish" is often used to describe Microsoft's strategy for entering product categories involving widely-used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors. In addition, Microsoft has been criticized for the insecurity of its software. However, Microsoft has won several awards, such as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S."

History

See also: History of Microsoft Windows

1975–1985: The founding of Microsoft

After reading the January 1, 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Bill Gates called the creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system. Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan"). The company restructured on June 25, 1981, to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington (with a further change of its name to "Microsoft, Inc."). Acquired from AT&T through a distribution license, Microsoft dubbed it Xenix, and hired Santa Cruz Operation in order to port/adapt the operating system to several platforms. This Unix variant would become home to the first version of Microsoft's word processor, Microsoft Word. Originally titled "Multi-Tool Word", Microsoft Word became notable for its concept of "What You See Is What You Get", or WYSIWYG. By the mid-1980s Microsoft had gotten out of the Unix business entirely. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for less than US$50,000, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Around 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created a home computer system, MSX, which contained its own version of the DOS operating system, entitled MSX-DOS; The deal with IBM allowed Microsoft to have control of its own QDOS derivative, MS-DOS, and through aggressive marketing of the operating system to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. With the release of the Microsoft Mouse on May 2, 1983, Microsoft continued to expand its product line in other markets. This expansion included Microsoft Press, a book publishing division, on July 11 the same year, which debuted with two titles: "Exploring the IBM PCjr Home Computer" by Peter Norton, and "The Apple Macintosh Book" by Cary Lu.

1985–1991: The rise and fall of OS/2

The Republic of Ireland became home to Microsoft's first international production facility in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2. Shortly afterwards on February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.

Meanwhile, Microsoft began introducing its most prominent office products. Microsoft Works, an integrated office program which combined features typically found in a word processor, spreadsheet, database and other office applications, saw its first release as an application for the Apple Macintosh towards the end of 1986. Microsoft Works would later be sold with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Bookshelf, a reference collection introduced in 1987 that was the company's first CD-ROM product. Later, on August 8, 1989, Microsoft would introduce its most successful office product, Microsoft Office. Unlike the model of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and so forth. While Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office were mostly developed internally, Microsoft also continued its trend of rebranding products from other companies, such as SQL Server on January 13, 1988, a relational database management system for companies that was based on technology licensed from Sybase.

On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0. The new version of Microsoft's operating system boasted such new features as streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor; Windows at the time generated more revenue for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to move more resources from OS/2 to Windows. In an internal memo to Microsoft employees on May 16, 1991, Bill Gates announced that the OS/2 partnership was over, and that Microsoft would henceforth focus its platform efforts on Windows and the Windows NT kernel. Some people, especially developers who had ignored Windows and committed most of their resources to OS/2, were taken by surprise, and accused Microsoft of deception. 1991 also marked the founding of Microsoft Research, an organization in Microsoft for researching computer science subjects, and Microsoft Visual Basic, a popular development product for companies and individuals.

1992–1995: Domination of the corporate market

During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft's product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors. Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors. In March 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional campaign on TV; In November, Microsoft released the first version of their popular database software Microsoft Access. Fortune Magazine named Microsoft as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." Microsoft Corp., in which the ruling was in Microsoft's favor, the release of Windows for Workgroups 3.11, a new version of the consumer line of Windows, and Windows NT 3.1, a server-based operating system with a similar user interface to consumer versions of the operating system, but with an entirely different kernel. As part of its strategy to broaden its business, Microsoft released Microsoft Encarta on March 22, the first encyclopedia designed to run on a computer. Microsoft changed its slogan to "Where do you want to go today?" in 1994 as part of an attempt to appeal to nontechnical audiences in a US$100 million advertising campaign.

Microsoft continued to make strategic decisions directed at consumers. The company released Microsoft Bob, a graphical user interface designed for novice computer users, in March 1995. Microsoft Bob is widely regarded as Microsoft's most unsuccessful product. DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft formed a new company, DreamWorks Interactive (in 2000 acquired by Electronic Arts which named it EA Los Angeles), to produce interactive and multimedia entertainment properties. In August 24, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows 95, a new version of the company's flagship operating system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its release.

Windows 95 was released without a browser as Microsoft had not yet developed one. Spyglass went on to later dispute the terms of the agreement, as Microsoft was to pay a royalty for every copy sold. However, Microsoft sold no copies of Internet Explorer, choosing instead to bundle it for free with the operating system. Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick in an attempt to further expand its profile in the computer hardware market.

1995–1999: Foray into the Internet and other ventures

In the mid-90s, Microsoft began to expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft's online services, using Microsoft Passport (now called Windows Live ID) as a universal login system for all of its websites. Microsoft also launched Slate, an online magazine edited by Michael Kinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoon Doonesbury. Microsoft entered the palm computing market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, specifically designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other palm-sized computers. 1996 saw the release of Windows NT 4.0, which brought the Windows 95 GUI and Windows NT kernel together.

While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. One of the most prominent of these was ActiveX, an application programming interface built on the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM); this enabled Microsoft and others to embed controls in many programming languages, including the company's own scripting languages, such as JScript and VBScript. The company also released the Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, which had built-in support for internet applications. Later in 1997, Microsoft Office 97 as well as Internet Explorer 4.0 were released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape, and by agreement with Apple Computer, Internet Explorer was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as with Windows. In October, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court in which they stated that Microsoft had violated an agreement signed in 1994, and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve Ballmer president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEO himself. Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features specifically for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays. Microsoft launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become the company's second largest after its U.S. headquarters. These documents, colloquially referred to as "The Halloween Documents", were widely reported by the media and go into detail of the threats that free software / open source software poses to Microsoft's own software, previously voiced mainly by analysts and advocates of open source software. While Microsoft acknowledges the documents, it claims that they are merely engineering studies.

2000–2005: Legal issues, XP, and .NET

Microsoft in 2000 released new products for all three lines of the company's flagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one its most prominent legal cases. On February 17, 2000 Microsoft released an update to its business line of software in Windows 2000, which some considered to be a significant improvement over previous versions. Microsoft, calling the company an "abusive monopoly" and forcing the company to split into two separate units. Previous versions of Windows CE supported only a small subset of the WinAPI, the main development library for Windows, and with Version 3 of Windows CE, the operating system now supported nearly all of the core functionality of the WinAPI.

Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, a version that aimed to encompass the features of both its business and home product lines. The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days. Later, Microsoft would enter the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, with the release of the Xbox.

In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio. In 2004, the company released Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, a version of Windows XP specifically designed for multimedia capabilities, and Windows XP Starter Edition, a version of Windows XP with a smaller feature set designed for entry-level consumers. However, Microsoft would encounter more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action would be brought against it by the European Union for allegedly abusing its market dominance (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case). Eventually Microsoft was fined €497 million (US$613 million), ordered to divulge certain protocols to competitors, and to produce a new version of its Windows XP platform—called Windows XP Home Edition N—that did not include its Windows Media Player. Microsoft was also ordered to produce separate packages of Windows after South Korea also landed a settlement against the company in 2005. It had to pay out US$32 million and produce more than one version of Windows for the country in the same vein as the European Union - one with Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger and one without the two programs.

2005–2007: The road to Vista

Formerly codenamed "Longhorn" in the early development stages, the next planned version of Windows, Windows Vista is scheduled for release to consumers in January, 2007 as of September 2006. Microsoft announced the new name of the operating system at the Microsoft Global Business Conference (MGB) in Atlanta, Georgia on July 21, 2005. Microsoft plans to release a new version of Microsoft Office as well, called Microsoft Office 2007, and is set to be released along side Vista in January 2007 as of May 2006.

In guise of competing with other Internet companies such as the search service Google, in 2005 Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN search service. Later, in 2006, the company launched Microsoft adCenter, a service that offers pay per click advertisements, in an effort to further develop their search marketing revenue.

On June 15, 2006 Gates announced his plans for a two year transition period out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft until July 31, 2008.

Product divisions

To be more precise in tracking performance of each unit and delegating responsibility, Microsoft reorganized into seven core business groups — each an independent financial entity — in April 2002. Later, on September 20, 2005, Microsoft announced a rationalization of its original seven business groups into the three core divisions that exist today: the Windows Client, MSN and Server and Tool groups were merged into the Microsoft Platform Products & the Information Worker and Microsoft Business Solutions groups were merged into the Microsoft Business Division;

Microsoft Platform Products and Services Divisions

This division produces Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows operating system. It has been produced in many versions, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. The online service MSN, the cable television station MSNBC, and the Microsoft online magazine Slate are all part of this division. At the end of 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail, the most popular webmail service, which it rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". Later in 1999 Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging client, to compete with the popular AOL Instant Messenger.

Microsoft Visual Studio is the company's set of programming tools and compilers. The previous version, Visual Studio.Net 2003, was named after the .NET initiative, a Microsoft marketing initiative covering a number of technologies. Microsoft's definition of .NET continues to evolve. As of 2004, .NET aims to ease the development of Microsoft Windows-based applications that use the Internet, by deploying a new Microsoft communications system, Indigo (now renamed Windows Communication Foundation). This is intended to address some issues previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design, which made it difficult, even impossible in some situations, to manage, install multiple versions of complex software packages on the same system (see DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development platform for all Windows applications (see Common Language Infrastructure). this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator").

Microsoft offers a suite of server software, entitled Windows Server System.

As of November 2006 Microsoft has extended itself to Linux and open source companies to allow Windows server to work harmoniously with servers running Linux, it has been stated Microsoft has paid $240 million to Novell for this.

Microsoft Business Division

The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office, which is the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a personal relational database application), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Windows-only groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), Microsoft FrontPage (a WYSIWYG HTML editor), and Publisher (desktop publishing software). Subsequently, Navision was acquired to provide a similar entry into the European market, resulting in the planned release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2006. The group markets Axapta and Solomon, catering to similar markets, which is scheduled to be combined with the Navision and Great Plains lines into a common platform called Microsoft Dynamics.

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division

Microsoft has attempted to expand the Windows brand into many other markets, with products such as Windows CE for PDAs and its "Windows-powered" Smartphone products. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, which today has developed into Windows Mobile 5. Microsoft used to sell a set-top Digital Video Recorder (DVR) called the UltimateTV, which allowed users to record up to 35 hours of television programming from a direct-to-home satellite television provider DirecTV.

Microsoft sells computer games that run on Windows PCs, including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. Microsoft Zone hosts free premium and retail games where players can compete against each other and in tournaments. Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo in late 2001, with the release of the Xbox. The company develops and publishes its own video games for this console, with the help of its Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary, in addition to third-party Xbox video game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision, who pay a license fee to publish games for the system. With the Xbox 360, Microsoft hopes to compensate for the losses incurred with the original Xbox. However, Microsoft made some decisions considered controversial in the video gaming community, such as selling two different versions of the system, as well as providing backward compatibility with only particular Xbox titles. In addition to the Xbox line of products, Microsoft also markets a number of other computing-related hardware products as well, including mice, keyboards, joysticks, and gamepads, along with other game controllers, the production of which is outsourced in most cases.

The division also houses Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit, one of the largest developers of Macintosh software outside Apple itself. The unit produces Macintosh versions of popular Microsoft productivity titles such as Office for Mac and Virtual PC for Mac;

Business culture

Microsoft has often been described as having a developer-centric business culture. For example, while many software companies often place an entry-level software developer in a cubicle desk within a large office space filled with other cubicles, Microsoft assigns a private or semiprivate closed office to every developer or pair of developers. In a sense, the software developers at Microsoft are considered the "stars" of the company in the same way that the sales staff at IBM are considered the "stars" of their company.

Within Microsoft the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using the latest Microsoft products inside the company in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. The company is also known for their hiring process, dubbed the "Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" For fun, Microsoft also hosts the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, an annual puzzle hunt (a live puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles) held at the Redmond campus.

As of 2006, Microsoft employees, not including Bill Gates, have given over $2.5bn dollars to non-profit organizations worldwide, making Microsoft the worldwide top company in per-employee donations.

User culture

Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network, often called MSDN. MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software. In recent years, Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, entitled Channel9, which provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet forum.

Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided through online Usenet newsgroups (in the early days it was also provided on CompuServe). There are several of these newsgroups for nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are monitored by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of special social status, in addition to possibilities for awards and other benefits. Current members of the board of directors of Microsoft are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond Gilmartin, Ann Korologos, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke, and Jon Shirley.

There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of Microsoft. For worldwide matters there is the Executive Team, made up of sixteen company officers across the globe, which is charged with various duties including making sure employees understand Microsoft's culture of business. The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees from the Law and Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. The initial close and ensuing rise in subsequent years made several Microsoft employees millions. Despite the company's ninth split on February 2, 2003 and subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock continues to stagnate as of June 2006.

Diversity

In 2005, Microsoft received a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign relating to its policies concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees. Partly through the work of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) group, Microsoft added gender expression to its antidiscrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights Campaign upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index from its 86% rating in 2004 to its current 100% rating, putting it among the most progressive companies in the world, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

In April 2005, Microsoft received wide criticism for withdrawing support from Washington state's H.B. However, under harsh criticism from both outside and inside the company's walls, Microsoft decided to support the bill again in May 2005.

During his visit to Waterloo in October 2005, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated, "Most years, we hire more students out of Waterloo than any university in the world, typically 50 or even more."

Microsoft hires many foreign workers as well as domestic ones, and is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the United States to employ certain foreign workers.

Working Mother magazine named Microsoft one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 and 2005.

Logos and slogans

In 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called "Pacman Logo" designed by Scott Baker. Dave Norris, a Microsoft employee, ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded.

Microsoft's logo depicted here, with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on the slogan Microsoft had as of 2006. Around 2002, the company started using the logo in United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?." Like some of Microsoft's other actions, the slogan met its fair share of criticism.

Microsoft "blibbet" logo, mid-1980s.

Microsoft logo with the 1994–2002 slogan "Where do you want to go today?"

Microsoft logo as of 2006, with the slogan "Your potential. Our passion."

Criticism

See also: Criticism of Microsoft

Corporate

Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry. Microsoft initially embraces and extends a competing standard or product, only to later extinguish it through such actions as writing their own incompatible version of the software or standard. These and other tactics have led to various companies and governments filing lawsuits against Microsoft. Microsoft has been called a "velvet sweatshop" in reference to allegations of the company working its employees to the point where it might be bad for their health. The first instance of "velvet sweatshop" in reference to Microsoft originated from a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees.

“ Large media corporations, together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you”

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation

Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion of Digital Rights Management (DRM), and the company's total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts" campaign. Microsoft is not the only platform provider who supports DRM, however. Proponents of Linux unveiled their own study arguing that, contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management costs than Windows Server.

Technical

Older versions of Microsoft products were often characterized as being unstable — versions of Windows based on MS-DOS, and later the Windows 95 kernel from the mid 1990s to early 2000s, were widely panned for their instability, displaying the "Blue Screen of Death", when Windows abruptly terminates an application — usually due to malfunctioning drivers or hardware. Computer users not familiar with the division of responsibilities among applications, the operating system, and third-party device drivers sometimes blame Microsoft for problems that are created by third-party software, particularly poorly written and unsigned drivers. Microsoft has consequently announced that it will disallow unsigned drivers in the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista.

The user interface of Microsoft products is occasionally criticized for its inconsistency and complexity, requiring interactive wizards to function as an extra layer between the user and the interface.

“ It's almost like Microsoft is designing for geeks and Apple is designing for real people”

Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research Senior Analyst

Numerous Microsoft products, most notably Internet Explorer, are seen as being insecure to malicious attacks such as computer viruses. A study conducted by Forrester Research refutes these claims, stating that it found that after a year of studying Windows and several Linux distributions, Windows had the fewest vulnerabilities and that "Microsoft was the only vendor to have corrected 100% of the publicly known flaws during the study's time period." Mike Nash, a Microsoft Corporate Vice President, responded to Internet Explorer security concerns in a 2005 interview by stating that the version of Internet Explorer shipped with Windows XP Service Pack 2 gives it security on the same level as its competition. ^ Microsoft Fourth Quarter FY 2006 Earnings Release. ^ MICROSOFT CORP: Company Overview. ^ Fast Facts about Microsoft. ^ Microsoft 2005 Annual Report. ^ The History of Computing Project - January 3, 1975 ^ Microsoft history at the History of Computing Project. "The Microsoft Millionaires Come of Age", The New York Times, 2005-05-29. ^ Microsoft Design. ^ Microsoft profits disappoint. Beta version of Microsoft's Vista shows a lot of potential. ^ Microsoft history at the History of Computing Project (Part 2). "Microsoft MVP FAQ". Doing Business With Microsoft". Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from inside. I Sing the Body Electronic: A Year With Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier. ^ Microsoft tests its own 'dog food'. Microsoft. Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design. ^ Awards received by Microsoft. ^ Key Events In Microsoft History. "Is It Time Again For Microsoft And Unix?", Information Week, 2000-06-12. “Chapter 12: Microsoft in the 1980's”, A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology, 1st edition, Allan Publishing, 12-13. "Microsoft to Microsoft disk operating system (MS-DOS)", Smart Computing, March 2002. "Redmond council OKs Microsoft expansion", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2005-05-18. ^ Microsoft OS/2 announcement. ^ Obsolete Microsoft products. ^ Microsoft Middle East info. ^ Multiple: "Microsoft Bob: the social interface", Soft-Letter, 1995-01-17. "Microsoft's Top 10 Flops, #1 - Microsoft Bob", eWeek. Remembering Microsoft Bob. ^ Microsoft - The History of Internet Explorer ^ Alexa top 500 sites. "Microsoft pondering legal challenge to Linux", CNN, 1998-11-06. Microsoft findings of fact. ^ Microsoft's midlife crisis. ^ "Microsoft hit by record EU fine", CNN, 2004-03-25. ^ Text of the European Union ruling against Microsoft (PDF). "Update: Microsoft fined $32M by South Korea", IDG News Service, 2005-12-07. ^ Microsoft Updates Windows Vista Road Map. ^ Media Alert: Microsoft Unveils Official Name for “Longhorn” and Sets Date for First Beta Targeted at Developers and IT Professionals. ^ Microsoft Office late too. ^ Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” Community Technology Preview. ^ Microsoft's Team Foundation Server represents a shift to collaborative-centric focus. "Microsoft Spotlights Its Search Engine", PCWorld, 2005-02-01. "With adCenter, Microsoft Bids For Web-Search Bonanza", Wall Street Journal, 2006-05-04. ^ Microsoft Announces Plans for July 2008 Transition for Bill Gates. "Bill Gates calls time on career at Microsoft", Financial Times, 2006-06-15. ^ Microsoft product groups. ^ List of Microsoft Puzzle Hunts. ^ Microsoft Employee Giving. ^ Microsoft Systems Journal Homepage. ^ Microsoft's Channel 9 And Cultural Rules. ^ Microsoft Corporation Corporate Governance Guidelines. ^ Microsoft 2005 Proxy Statement. ^ Microsoft 2004 Citizenship Report. ^ Microsoft stock FAQ. ^ Microsoft stock price spreadsheet from Microsoft investor relations. (Microsoft Excel format) ^ Microsoft dividend FAQ. ^ Gates stepping down from full-time Microsoft role, page 2. (PDF format) ^ Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM). ^ HRC: Microsoft withdraws support for H.B. ^ HRC: Microsoft renews support for H.B. ^ "How Microsoft Changed Its Mind", BusinessWeek, 2005-05-12. " McCann Thinks Local for Global Microsoft", Adweek, 2006-01-09. Microsoft set to launch new marketing campaign. ^ Microsoft "Your potential. ^ Microsoft Corp. Microsoft — it all ends in tears. "Linux fans hit back at Microsoft TCO claims", vnunet.com, 2006-02-13. ^ Q&A: How Microsoft Is Keeping Pace with an Ever-Changing Security Landscape.