I was an anti MS zealout and linux fan boy back in 2000. Hence why I choose my name. I was trying to find a post where I rant about MS after the DOJ sided with MS where I threatened to quit IT if MS won!! etc
But today it is different. Mainly because I prefer 3 mobile players rather than 2. 2 search engines rather than 1. Yes it is still bad for competition but this hatred for Microsoft stealing and monopolizing everything is so 10 years ago.
It is like being afraid of IBM today. Weird.
Even if you Android and Linux full time a 30% marketshare for Windows Phone will ensure Google wont get too evil and incredibly lazy and wont' set W3C standards to its own version of IE6 in Chrome. Apple is pretty small outside the US and Canada. No one in China even knows about the iPhone and Android is like Windows of the 1990s in PC's over there with 95% marketshare in the smartphone market.
Many slashdotters are still mad at MS and refuse to touch a win based OS. Fine, I feel the same about Sony. However things change and any company whether it is IBM, Microsoft, or even Google can be evil. Remember when Apple was cool again a decade ago and Steve Jobs was a nice guy who could do no wrong with opensource? Gee look what happened when Apple got power? YIKES. Not so cool and hip anymore.
I think competition where no one can set the standards is what is needed. Another facebook may come along someday if it can do something people demand. Myspace was all the rage too you know. I still wonder how facebook beat myspace?
Google search ... that is heard to beat. They are too powerful and the cost of entry is too great to compete. Google though in its current state is nimble and quick to update. Once it settles down to an ugly corporate behemonth with MBA's afraid of change where cost accountants run the show it will then become vulnerable if and only if someone can make a superior product with much much limited resources.
I would prefer some other company than Microsoft actually. Microsoft hasn't changed their ways. One name. "Horacio Gutierrez" Microsoft has launched a software-patent campaign against open source and Linux in particular in a sleazy attempt to drive up the cost of FOSS in the marketplace. I don't know if you write code but what Microsoft is doing is saying that they own your code. So you write some code that increases compatibility with some Microsoft platform. Microsoft will claim that the code you wrote, even though its nothing like anything Microsoft wrote, still belongs to them. Anyone that produces a product with your said code now has to pay Microsoft a tax. This kind of egregious behaviour in the marketplace is what sets Microsoft apart from Google. As a former Microsoft and Sony Style fanboy I still wont touch Microsoft or Sony products until they sincerely change their ways.