[ale] OT Microsoft now favors fair competition

[Joe Bayes]

Geoffrey typeth:
>Joe Bayes wrote:
>> Geoffrey typeth:
>> 
>> 
>>>You may find it humorous, I do not.  Your comments such as these belie 
>>>that I see you as a M$ sympathizer.  Hardly, but anyone who has anything 
>>>good to say about M$ is poorly informed, or worse, too much like M$. 
>> 
>> 
>> Now, that's not fair. I loathe Microsoft's business tactics and buggy
>> software as much as the next guy, but saying that there's *nothing*
>> good about them is misleading and wrong. Counterexamples: Last I
>> checked, Microsoft made pretty good mice and keyboards.
>
>I've had one M$ mouse, it crapped out after 6 months.  Whatever.  That 
>is not a reflection of their 'good.'  

One counterexample is not sufficient to disprove my statement. I'm
sorry you got a bad one, though. 

>And how many of those devices are designed to leverage their
>operating system?  Oh, now we see why they make hardware...

Irrelevant, except that it serves to point out my initial point. The
fact that they may have sinister motives for making good mice, doesn't
change the fact that they make good mice. 

Hitler made the trains run on time. The fact that he did a bunch of
other awful stuff doesn't change the fact that he made the trains run
on time. 

>> MS has been
>> known to give money to various worthy causes.
>
>Do your research further.  Why?  They donate to libraries and schools to 
>get their products in the door.

I don't need to do more research; the fact that they donate is
sufficient to prove my point. The fact that they have ulterior
motives, or that the money was attained using less than scrupulous
means, is irrelevant to the fact that they donate. 

>The ONLY reason M$ does ANYTHING is to extend their market.

Duh. I already told you I'm no fan of their "corporate morality"; why
lecture me on it? 

>> The awful things that they have done may *outweigh* the good things
>> that they have done, but those bad things don't erase the existence of
>> the good things.
>
>Again, I challenge you to do the research.  Provide information where 
>Microsoft has done ANYTHING simple because it's either the right thing 
>to do and I assure you if you dig deep enough, you'll find the truth.

Their reasons are irrelevant (and I charge $50/hour for irrelevant
research ;). If their sole reason for making good mice was as part of a
sinister plan to destroy the world, they'd still be making good mice.

--joe
--
Joe Bayes -- jbayes at spoo.mminternet.com

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