First on Fox: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Remember all the talk about the auto industry problems a short few weeks ago. Could you imagine if a new car had the problems they have with new releases from ms. They would never sell a new car again and the government would be all over the big three for shoddy products.

Couldn't agree with you more "ted in pdx". Just like certain brand names that never seem to go away, because of patents,because of intelectual property rights,they become the "900lb. Gorilla",seems once the companies have the financial resources there's no stopping them. The "European Trade Union" for years couldn't even make a case for a "Monopoly",which baffles me to this day, because MSFT really has a sub-par product!

The advent of Windows 7 repeats a consistent pattern by Microsoft: release new versions of the Windows operating system with serious defects, use their monopoly over the PC hardware distribution channel to force adoption of the new OS by consumers and business, and then, as those new purchasers waste their own time and money coping with the defects, release new products which solve some of the more egregious defects in the prior release, while introducing new ones. It has been said that Windows 7 is an improvement on Windows Vista. The same is true of Windows XP: after years of bug-fixes and patches to security leaks in XP, it had arrived at a point where it was reasonably stable. However, it's stability made it easier for competitors and open-source software developers to build software for Windows XP, therefore it became a threat to Microsoft primary business model: make consumers dependent upon continuous critical defect triage, with planned obsolescence every 5-7 years which enables them to perpetuate that cycle. Ironically, when a software flaw was identified in Microsoft's Zune game console, they mobilized massive resources to fix the problem and provide it to consumers. Meanwhile, there are thousands of known defects in all of Microsoft's business software products which have been in place for years, and cost literally hundreds of millions of man-hours to consumers and businesses world-wide. What's wrong with this picture?