The anti-Unix thing was beyond fubar...

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thanks chris for sending this in!

Awful is right. As any future anti-Unix run will provoke gales of laughter from the Slashdotter sysadmin types...And "the we really didn't mean 'Sun' with the purple paint, just happened to have some on hand" excuse, convinces no one...

A slew of bigtime PR backfires and perception problems from MS of late...
The Mira 'beta hardware charge', excepting the OEMs indicated a price point for the final LOWER than the beta cost. Mira being viewed as kinda DOA; as all Gates micromanagementized. No compelling need, not like Tablet PC.

Pocket PC 2002 - bugfest city. People aren't too happy. Corporates finding out it is a hacked-together clugded version. OEM Hardware problems galore. Mobile Devices in reorg, reorg, reorg.

SmartPhone - Oh sorry about that locking up problem. More than 100 contacts and it locks up. Tho onward to .NET ahoy. The 3 tries concept might not work per phones. BT and Sendo mad as heck and hedging bets.

The XBox denial, per Europe and Japan, when EA and basically every game company said was such. MS PR stuck to their guns and defended the indefensible.

The "No. 3 guy" curse yet again. :)

Tablet PC becoming a longtimetabled joke in the tech press (I have faith tho).

Gate'z April Fools gag and basically ticking off of Canada...as indication that the Jean Chrétien wasn't important enough to be met with.

.NET Marketing security flap and a slew of Trustworthy Security updates that don't work, but then the 'remote' vs. 'local' discussions as a very feeble MS excuse.

Georgi Guninski problem. MS getting bad rap in security circles. Saying "irresponsible" which maybe be true but security guys saying "ignored".

Paul Allen and Moxi...Benedict Arnold anyone?

Continued pursuit of Lindows.

The 'Critical for all users' 'Windows Messenger 4.6 Connectivity Update', that reintroduces it for people who have removed it...

Slew of Hotmail spam of late, lottsa complaints there. People getting fed up, past 3 months. Not MS fault directly. But Hotmail is a dot.com era idea that is now seemingly spam central. Yahoo opt-in default issue re-highlighting it. etc.

Dual use of WaggEd as PR and as 'clarificational enforcers' with a law firm on the side. WaggEd becoming more harm than good. Too many MS people using WaggEd as their own personal vindictive 'get-even' concept. People bracing for the hit...etc.
Course TONS of positives too. Just seems the whole push to .NET has got the entire company in a tizzy. They are betting the farm on it.

Beautiful man...

COMPETING WITH .NET

Borthwick said Windows XP repeatedly prompts users to sign up for Passport, Microsoft's authorization software for .NET.

AOL recently joined other large companies in the Liberty Alliance, that seeks to develop a competing authentication service, after failing to agree with Microsoft on making .NET compatible with an AOL suite of services dubbed Magic Carpet.

Borthwick said the states' proposal for broader disclosure of the inner-workings of Windows and protections against retaliation by Microsoft would allow rivals to develop services to compete with .NET.

The AOL executive also praised proposals by the states to allow third parties to license a stripped-down version of Windows that could be used to design customized computer desktops that feature non-Microsoft software.

Borthwick provided the court with a prototype for a child's computer featuring the Lego building toy that uses non-Microsoft middleware applications like Yahoo Messenger and Kodak picture maker.

He also saw possibilities for a sports PC or a music PC aimed at high-school and college students.

The proposed settlement aims to give computer makers greater freedom to feature rival software, but Borthwick said Microsoft's middleware would only be hidden.

Microsoft need only wait 14 days before prompting the consumer to reconfigure the desktop or sweep competing icons away into a folder off the opening screen, he said.

INTERACTIVE TV

The states argue that remedies in the case should be broad enough to protect technologies that have arisen since the case began, handheld computing devices and interactive television.

Earlier on Wednesday, Microsoft disputed the testimony of an interactive television executive who charged Microsoft had muscled in on his company's business.

Microsoft attorney Dan Webb challenged Mitchell Kertzman, chief executive of Liberate Technologies , to cite any examples in which Microsoft had used illegal tactics to cut into Liberate's business. Webb also questioned Kertzman's claim that Liberate poses a competitive threat to Microsoft.

Kertzman had said Microsoft was making inroads into interactive television by requiring the use of its software as a condition of major investments in cable television firms.

Webb pointed out that most of those companies, including Telewest , AT&T Corp. and Comcast Corp., still used Liberate software in their TV set-top boxes.

"Apparently you've done well with AT&T in spite of Microsoft," Webb said sarcastically.

Kertzman said Microsoft had so far not taken away any of Liberate's business because it had failed to produce interactive TV software. "We are doing well in this nascent stage of the market despite Microsoft's efforts to control the channels of distribution," he said.