You know, I read this and decided not to comment but geez, I just can't do it!

Microsoft has dozens of bulletproof, scalable backend products that easily have the robustness of UNIX, your statement is extremely biased and without merit. I am sure you and the other couple hundred thousand folks who use Linux at home are going to be sad when Linux finally gets relegated back to the geek closet (Data Center) where it belongs once the false hope that it will conquer mighty Microsoft finally dies. Linux, while a good idea, just can't produce when it comes to the wide range productivity apps and industry support customers demand. It isn't about the robustness, who deserves it more or which company is more ethical, it is about market share and availability. Microsoft, whether you like it or not is here to stay and while you can fight them and run everything else on your personal computer and home products, you can't escape their technology.

As a Systems Architect with 15 years experience I can tell you first hand that Microsoft solutions work very well, like anything else, a good design is the key. Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME and XP each moved the market forward faster than any other product offered by any other manufacturer. People sit and whine about stability and Operating System choices but do you see anyone trying to compete? IBM, Sun, Oracle all have the resources but just can't do it. After all, who wants to write the OS, that's not the important part (so IBM said 20 or so years ago and "handed" Microsoft the keys to the future).

No one considers all the shareware and $20 applications, plug-ins and incompatible products that folks load on their computers, only to turn around and blame the OS when it chokes. I can't tell you the number of times I have seen third party software overwrite system DLL's without version checking, in my opinion the primary cause of OS instability. Microsoft products on a Microsoft OS can't be beat, by any companies products on any platform. Get mad at Bill because he has more money than god, get mad at Microsoft because they use their power to thrive but for gods sake give them some friggen' credit! No company provides the number of productivity applications, games, freebies or level of support Microsoft does (ever see the repository of information they provide online!?).

Break them up? Please! Why, because they give away Internet Explorer and that ruins the model Netscape used (sell something someone else provides free?). Why not go back to Windows 3.11 and disk compression, it wasn't there before, shouldn't the OS only have limited features like Netscape and says? Golly, give me a stripped OS so I can buy all that stuff from the people that ride the Microsoft Windows coat-tails and make a killing doing it. If the US Government really thinks they even have a clue about the computer industry (you remember the government don't you, you know, the folks who brought you 1 million + lines of IRS code, the ones who spend $300,000 building an outhouse in a state park, the ones who actually think a toilet seat in the Pentagon was worth $1,200) and think they know what should and should not be in an Operating System, god help us all!!!

"ahhhhh, that felt good though I am sure it was completely wasted, people tend to like and defend-to-the-death whatever product they choose, as is human nature. Perhaps a computer forum here on Remote Central is in order, Daniel?"

Jack Fetter