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What Microsoft does right

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Lashiec:
I think the guys did deliver for the most part when it comes to gaming (Red Ring of Death aside :D). They did a good job with the original XBOX and now with the XBOX 360, housing a good deal of obscure but very good games with the former (very PC-like), learning from their mistakes and creating an excellent system with a good game library with the latter, capable of challenging the Sony behemoth, although I'm concerned Microsoft's huge paychecks are getting too much in the way as lately.

Also, they played a role in the often missed Dreamcast (*sob*), and they published excellent 2nd and 3rd party games under the Microsoft Game Studios label for the PC: Age of Empires, Dungeon Siege, Crimson Skies, Freelancer, Rallisport Challenge, Rise of Nations...

Apart from that, it's commendable (up to some point) that in recent times they have been able to adapt to a fast-changing market, as well as listening to the customers and trying to fix their bigger errors. Of course, it's questionable up to what point Microsoft's own initiatives play a part compared to the looming presence of the competition waiting for them to take advantage of every mistake they commit.

And they bought Sysinternals (along other important companies). Yeah, that was a good move :D

f0dder:
And they bought Sysinternals (along other important companies). Yeah, that was a good move :D
-Lashiec (September 08, 2008, 05:48 PM)
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I would have much preferred keeping sysinternals independent, tbh.

fenixproductions:
2f0dder
I agree with you completely.

Short after takeover their tools dropped support for Win 9x and became to grow larger and larger.

tranglos:

* incredible apps like OneNote, and for me, Expression Web;
-zridling (September 08, 2008, 02:46 AM)
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Say more about Expression Web, please? I've been considering it just recently, but the price for European customers is outrageous - not $299 (the US pricetag), but a little over $516 (at Google's exchange rate today). And the website is all clobbered in Firefox 3. Just to make sure the thread isn't unduly smothered in lucre :)

Good things? Localization is one of the things MS gets right. It took them a few years, early versions of Windows and Office had awful, side-splittingly funny translation errors, but they really put a lot of effort into establishing a reliable process. As a translator / proofreader, MS projects are the nicest to work on. They test stringently and evaluate almost every completed project, to keep you on your toes, but they also provide all the tools and all the linguistic resources to do the job right. Most large software makers don't know the first thing about localization or can't be bothered to manage it properly. (Adobe, Apple, I'm looking at you!)

Oh, and keyboards. Give me a Logitech mouse and an MS keyboard any time.

Edvard:
1- Games
There are probably a thousand reasons why Windows is the platform of choice for pc gaming proper, but none of it really matters. Windows owns the pc game platform, period.
2- Hardware Compatibility
Aside from the fact that early driver releases tend to suck, Windows is the first platform that new hardware will have drivers done and working for. I think that has as much to do with the stableness of the API as much as with market share. Speaking of which...
3- Development
Love it or hate it, when you want to write software for Windows, everything you need is right there in the developer's kit. Yes, things sometimes break as more advanced tools come out, but for the most part if it compiles on one Windows box, it'll run on another. As much as I love Linux, I would not be caught dead without a package management system that automatically maintains the amorphous blob of libraries that different software packages require. Freedom of choice can get pretty weird sometimes...

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