Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Microsoft getting slammed left and right

Over the past couple of weeks, Microsoft has gotten slammed from both sides of the water on a variety of topics. But is it all warranted?

Over the years, many people have come to hate those up in Redmond, including most of the Apple world. Anytime there is a problem in the online world, it seems that everyone starts pointing at Microsoft or Bill Gates. Well, Bill gates is gone supposedly now and Microsoft is trying to play nice with the open source world that they have long stepped on with every turn of the hat.

Now the European Union has stepped on them with the largest judgement against any company ever. The EU courts has fined Microsoft 889 million for dragging their feet on changes that were mandated by the same court in 2004. Developers in Europe have long suffered at the hands of Microsoft and now the high fees MS charged the developers is coming back to haunt them again.

Also California courts decided this week that a class action suit against Microsoft could proceed. The case which contend thats the Vista Ready label on machines was misleading. Many of the machines so labeled could run no better than the Vista Basic version of the operating system. Since Microsoft dictates what constitutes Vista Ready, they are now a target.

Now with these high profile cases happening, many of the good things that Microsoft does on a daily basis get over looked. And it is no wonder since the cases are extreme and unfortunately warranted, it will take a while before the good things get looked at again.