Coupled with Microsoft's long standing campaign to influence social media discussions in technical forums, like this one. Instead of investing that money in making better products, we've come to the point where success has to include not only dominating the market, but influencing social media and the regulatory environment. It's almost like their operating system business is an afterthought for Microsoft these days. They're not about building better products as much as hanging on to their market share and putting down competition.

It seems to me that's not a very good business model. North American car companies have tried that game too and we all know how much good that has done them. Instead of building cars with better fuel economy and overall quality they have lobbied for lower fuel efficiency standards and political means to keep competitors out of the market. In the end car companies that make better cars come out on top.

It would be interesting to find out why they run the company that way. Is it because they have lost touch with what consumers want? Or is it because they really believe that this is how you beat the competition?

For now my money is on any company that is not as heavily invested in desktop OS' as Microsoft. I would not be surprised if in ten years your OS and computing device will be as relevant to your user experience as what brand of TV you use today is relevent to how you watch TV. It will have only minor influence on how you experience your networked world.