Why Microsoft is a Good Citizen

[FortyTwo]

Link to Story Source

Top ten reasons why Microsoft is a good citizen

John Carroll, 31 July 2002

ZDNet.com

Why does everyone have to dump on Microsoft? Despite its antitrust troubles, the company has done some very good things for us all.

COMMENTARY--Why does everyone have to dump on Microsoft? Despite its antitrust troubles, the company has done some very good things for us all.

One of the main things that you give up upon leaving the United States is late-night television. I haven't seen David Letterman in over two years. My cultural lifeline to the Etats-Unis (as the natives here in Switzerland call it) has been Conan O'Brien as featured on CNBC, although I'm finding that my ability to recognise his guests is inversely proportional to the amount of time I spend in Europe.

Thus, in honour of my one-time favorite late-night talk show, I present the top 10 reasons why Microsoft is a good corporate citizen.

10. Microsoft drives computing costs down

With all the rhetoric surrounding Linux and its "free" status, it is often forgotten why consumers (Linux users included) pay so little for computer hardware these days. Not only have Microsoft's desktop efforts led to greater hardware economics of scale, the company has actively worked to drive down hardware prices through standard PC specifications, including simple things like the WinModem. Though WinModems drive Linux aficionados to distraction, the reason WinModems exist is that they cost less, saving consumers money on new PCs.

Furthermore, let's not forget that Microsoft has historically charged FAR less than its proprietary cousins. Compared to Sun Microsystems' high-priced Unix servers, Oracle's incredibly expensive database and the price combo of Apple hardware with ANY Apple OS, Microsoft products have been an incredible bargain.

9. Microsoft has been instrumental in bringing computing to ordinary people

Although that might be a "negative" for those who don't want to be bothered by hordes of "newbies," non-technical computer users wouldn't be on the Internet if it weren't for handholding from companies such as AOL and, of course, Microsoft. Through its marketing and products, Microsoft has done more than any other company to help users find ways to integrate computing into their daily lives.

8. Microsoft employees absolutely love their company

Microsoft regularly is ranked one of the best places to work. Programmers are respected, and creativity is encouraged. Plus, the company pays well to boot. That leads to one of the lowest employee turnover rates in the industry, even at a time when the company is in the midst of a government suit which has dragged its name through the mud.

7. Microsoft pays loads in taxes

According to information found on Yahoo! Financials, Microsoft paid US$1.288bn in income taxes for the fiscal quarter ended 31 March. This will probably go down in the history books as my stupidest analogy ever, but imagine Microsoft paid that sum in pennies. A penny weighs 2.5 grams, and at a grams-to-pounds conversion rate of .002205, would result in a weight of pennies of approximately 270,774,000 pounds (or 135,387 short tons). To put that in perspective, the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier weighs in at 95,000 tons, making Microsoft's quarterly income tax charge worth the weight of 1.5 aircraft carriers.

6. Its founder has donated more money to charity than anyone in history

At the last count, Bill Gates, as an individual, has given about US$22bn -- or just under 26 aircraft carriers -- to charity. To put that in perspective, George Soros' donations as an individual total a "measly" US$2bn. Andrew Carnegie, the famed philanthropist, gave only US$3bn in current dollars over the course of his life.

5. Microsoft creates a computing economy worth far greater than its own net worth

If one counts up all the companies that develop Windows-compatible software (including such industry luminaries such as Oracle and IBM), all the hardware companies that make money selling to Windows users, and all the technicians engaged in writing software for Windows or providing technical support for it, you'll find that there is far more money made from Microsoft products outside of Redmond than is made inside of it.

4. One of the largest R&D budgets in the industry

In fiscal year 2001, Microsoft spent US$4.4bn, a spending total that rose to more than US$5bn in fiscal year 2002. R&D benefits us all through technological advancements. Though developing software that is more productive might not seem as earth-shattering as, say, finding a cure for cancer, such advances improve the efficiency of the digital infrastructure upon which we build our lives.

3. Microsoft takes risks

This might seem a strange reason to consider Microsoft a good corporate citizen, but consider the results. How many companies would have the courage -- much less the stamina --to take on Sony in game consoles, Palm computing in handhelds, Sun in server operating systems, Oracle and IBM in databases, AOL in internet access, and practically every wireless phone maker in existence (Nokia and Ericsson among them) in the provision of operating systems for advanced cell phones? Not many.

Microsoft is the primary competitor to these leading companies in most of these markets, which helps boost quality and innovation. I might be going off on a tangent, but if Microsoft can enter already dominated markets and manage to keep its head above water, why can't other large companies compete in markets Microsoft dominates?

2. A beacon of profitability in a sea of red ink

Microsoft is one of the few companies to have managed to maintain robust sales throughout the current recession. That should matter to those who care about the health of the US economy.

And last but not least...

1. No accounting scandals at Microsoft

In contrast to all the revenue-padding at Enron, WorldCom and even AOL, Microsoft was prompted by the Securities and Exchange Commission to adjust its past income upwards.

So there you have it. My apologies to David Letterman for dragging him into the mother of all geek wars.

John Carroll is a software engineer who lives in Switzerland. He specialises in the design and development of distributed systems using Java and .Net.

[Crispy]

Well, I think there's alot of truth in those arguments... really... I mean, even though Microsoft can be bashed for a thousand different things you can't really deny the fact that you're currently reading this on a website solely dedicated to supporting the products of the previously mentioned company

[HybridShadow]

Now that is an exellent post - well done and alot of truth

[Martin Zugec]

Yep... I am always disgusted when I see evilization of MS on internet

And I am sure most of the evilizers are in fact using MS OS

[mr_flames]

Yep... I am always disgusted when I see evilization of MS on internet

And I am sure most of the evilizers are in fact using MS OS

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Totally agree though I would suggest that they lower their prices.

[Martin Zugec]

Well, not just lower, but change the logic behind licenses... For example I HATE CAL licenses...

[FortyTwo]

Personally I used Linux for the past year or so, but I bought a new Laptop with XP on it and have no intention of reformating it - the reason is XP just works!

Microsoft, has actually done a lot of good as the story mentions, yeh they really need to revise their pricing and/or licensing, but overall they are an innovative, cutting edge company who has managed to bring computing to the masses, for that alone I applaude them.

[Zxian]

Personally I used Linux for the past year or so, but I bought a new Laptop with XP on it and have no intention of reformating it - the reason is XP just works!

Microsoft, has actually done a lot of good as the story mentions, yeh they really need to revise their pricing and/or licensing, but overall they are an innovative, cutting edge company who has managed to bring computing to the masses, for that alone I applaude them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wholeheartedly agree.

I've also used Linux for a little while now (nothing hard core... just playing around), but I always use Windows for my day to day computing - especially on my laptop. I had Ubuntu installed on my laptop for a little while, but then got rid of it. Wireless support in Linux is horrible (if existent) at this point, and the "hibernate" feature in Ubuntu doesn't really give much of a time advantage over booting normally (which it most certainly does in WindowsXP).

I don't mean to turn this into a Linux bashing post, but it's a point to mention about OSX as well... they don't have to support nearly as vast of a hardware base as Windows does. People often forget the fact that Apple is a computer hardware company first, software company second. Their drivers are made for their hardware and nothing else.

Windows is also very easy to learn for new users. With a little bit of training (much less than you'd need on Linux), most people can become quite apt with computers. Those people who say that the 1-button mouse of a Mac makes things easier...go home . Once you tell people that the index finger is to point, and the middle finger is for options, people understand right away how 2-button mice work.

Microsoft has done a great job with their software (not just Windows). The Office Suite is extremely useful and very easy to manage. Microsoft Project is indespensable when it comes to planning and scheduling. VirtualPC offers an easy way to test out new software without risking your current install. The list goes on.

My vote - two thumbs way up.

[Incroyable HULK]

Nobody can affort a "legal" copy of MS Office at Home. This is were they should start to lower their price...

[jcarle]

You know, I love Microsoft operating systems, I love how everything is standardized in the Microsoft world (almost) and how things just work out of the box with Microsoft products. What other operating system other then Microsoft's own Windows XP let you do so much will so little preparation. I mean you buy an external hard drive, plug it into your USB socket and it just works. No drivers to install, no configuration to make, just litterally plug and play. There is a LOT of things that have become plug and play with no drivers to install thanks to Microsoft. Nobody else has done it so well.

However, on a realistic side of things, Microsoft software and licenses are way too expensive for an average person. If you want a full retail copy of Windows XP Professional, you're looking at $229.95 USD. Add on a full retail copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional at $379.95 USD, you're already up to $609.90 USD.

If you're a programmer, like I am, you'll also need a full retail copy of Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 at $699.95 USD.

So just to be able to start using my computer, I have to buy $1,309.85 USD of software from Microsoft. That's without calculating the taxes on that and looking only at the Microsoft software.

In my case because I do web development, I'd also have to buy a full retail copy of Macromedia Studio MX 2004 at $949.95 USD, a full retail copy of Adobe Photoshop CS 2 at $559.95 USD and a full retail copy of Adobe Illustrator CS 2 at $499.95 USD. Now we're up to $3,319.70 USD of software.

If you add all the little applications that I need as well, such as Nero, Winzip, WinRAR, VMware and some other small things, I'm well up into the $3,500 USD mark.

I make about $675 USD per month in income, and about $580 USD of that goes to my rent, bills and food every month. So at $95 USD a month left over, assuming I never went out and used all of my spare money to pay for this sofware, I'd have for 37 months, or 3 years of payments. By which time, everything would be out of date and I'd have to start over again.

How is a normal person expected to be able to pay for this? I didn't even dip into what it would cost me if I wanted to build myself a server at home that ran Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. That would cost me more then a brand new car would.

Edited August 1, 2005 by jcarle

[Zxian]

@jcarle - You are a man full of wisdom. I'm just like you, only the difference is that I'm a poor student who has to pay for tuition as well...

[jcarle]

@Zxian - I shall adopt you as my new pet.

[Zxian]

Hey... moomba's aren't anyone's pet...

[Incroyable HULK]

@jcarle - You are a man full of wisdom. I'm just like you, only the difference is that I'm a poor student who has to pay for tuition as well...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At least you get educationnal pricing which is the lowest price you can pay for software... unless you can get it for free