Picture sent by a reader

Summary: Assorted thoughts about Microsoft's history as a copier and ripoff artist, not an innovator

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" is a famous production which was brought up by this Web site which seems critical of Microsoft's actions (including present actions that prove Microsoft has never changed). Microsoft has a long tradition of taking other people's ideas and claiming credit for them.

I started this interesting novel by Douglas Coupland. The book is entitled Microserfs and it manifests Geek culture by depicting the lives of several coders who work for the software giant in Redmond. Along with the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, in which one can see the origins of Microsoft, this book has given me a lot to think about...and I am only on page 40!

The novel shows how MS employees developed a certain "Microsoft culture" that happens to be very interesting. Of course, corporate culture is nothing new, but there are certain factors that acquire an undeniable notoriousness (not to mention a somewhat prophetic glow) when one considers that the book describes the reality of the 90's.

"Microsoft don't do innovation," explained a reader to us, "what they are really good at is:

01. `Partnering' with some company. 02. Assimilate their technology 03. Force company out of business 04. Assimilate former staff of some company.

Our reader points to this new story from Real, which saw this strategy from the inside.

He goes on to explain the misfit between Microsoft's monopoly PC software business and the new world of Internet search, social networking and products that integrate hardware, software and services.

Sometimes Microsoft just grabs someone else's proprietary code, thus directly violating the law [1, 2, 3, 4]. Maybe it's that "Microsoft culture" we keep hearing about. ⬆