Why many Computer Lovers hate Microsoft: Questions & Answers

[This is the first publication of this document; comments are warmly welcomed. Just reply to this message!].

Introduction: Windows is Great, Bill Gates is God.

Let's say you're a new computer user. You buy your shiny new Pentium 100, take it home, open up the box, and there is Windows. At first, it looks pretty good. There are a lot of cute pictures, and the screen looks nice and colourful. Everything even seems fast, because you bought a computer that's several times more powerful than the mainframe or minicomputers that used to power whole universities filled with people.

If you pick up Microsoft's suite, things still look pretty good. It's complex, but you can certainly create simple letters straight away, and worry about things like style sheets later. Although some things are infuriatingly complex, word processing is simple enough unless you want to do horribly elaborate stuff.

So everything looks good enough, and the software costs next to nothing. What's not to like?

I'm writing this with the assumption you're in roughly this position right now. Read on and learn!

A note to my friends, the Windows-Haters

Some of you may feel that the tone of this document is insufficiently hostile to the evil that is Gates and Windows.

You are, of course, perfectly right to make this accusation. I have found, however, that the majority of windows haters are very shrill in their anger. I cannot blame them for this; the emotion is justifiable, and I've felt much of it myself.

But I think that we have a far better chance of putting our message across if we look like reasonable adults instead of ranting adolescents. Please forgive me my politeness; I use it because I feel it's effective.

I need help writing this document

Although I have written this entire first draft myself, I'd appreciate additional comments and/or contributions to this document. I will soon be putting it on my web site, which is presently in transition. (I'm getting a new 56k connection, but am having a lot of trouble getting it set up).

The overall theme of contributions will be retained, but I may rewrite or edit them to fit the style of the document. If you do NOT wish me to do this, please let me know when you mail your contribution.

Please drop me a line at david@amazing.cinenet.net . Since my site is moving late this month, be prepared for a mail bounce; if mail comes back, send it to david@amazing.com.

This is a Microsoft-Free Document

This document was written on a CERAM Tatung Sun clone system with 32MB RAM and a 2.1GB hard disk. The EMACS text editor was used to type in the text, and my own homegrown HTML formatter was used to sectionalize it. No Microsoft products were used in its creation.

I am ashamed to admit, however, that my NEC MultiSync XP21 21" colour monitor is Microsoft Plug-and-Play compatible. My Sun, of course, does not use or need this feature.

When my new site is up, the same Sun clone system will be used to serve this and all my other WWW documents.

Table of Contents

[My automated HTML generator creates a table of contents containing the following sections that is not reproducable in the text version]

1.0 Why do otherwise reasonable-sounding people rant and rave about Windows?

2.0 Bill Gates' mad lust for power

3.0 What can be done to resist the monopoly?

4.0 More Anti-Microsoft Resources