Gourt > Society > Issues > Business > Allegedly Unethical Firms > Microsoft (1)
The Microsoft Corporation (, ) is a multinational computer technology corporation with 2005 global annual sales of States dollar|US$" target="_blank" >*39.79 billion and 63,564 employees in 102 countries and regions. It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most popular products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of which has achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and MSN TV.
Microsoft's name, originally bi-capitalized as MicroSoft or with hyphenation as Micro-Soft, is a blend of "microcomputer software" and is often abbreviated informally as MS. The company was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 4 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. After the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones in the mid-1980s, Microsoft used its new position, which it gained in part due to a contract from IBM, to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS. The company later released an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which netted several of its employees millions of dollars due to the ensuing rise of the stock price. The price of the stock continued its rise steadily into the early 2000s. In Microsoft Windows, originally an add-on for MS-DOS, the company was selling what would become the most widely used operating system in the world; Microsoft continued to push into multiple markets, such as computer hardware and television. In addition, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.Multiple:
With what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has become widely known for some of its internal codes of conduct for its employees.Multiple:
One example is the "eat your own dog food" mantra, which describes the practice of using pre-release products inside the company to test them in an environment geared towards the real world. Microsoft has been convicted of monopolistic business practices—the U.S. Justice Department, among others, has sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and software bundling. homepage at the United States Department of Justice The slogan "embrace, extend, and extinguish" is often used to describe Microsoft's strategy for entering product categories involving widely-used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors. In addition, Microsoft has been criticized for the insecurity of its software. However, Microsoft has won several awards, such as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." by Fortune magazine, as well as maintaining a place on the Fortune 500 list of companies as of 2006.
Microsoft Windows :: Operating Systems
Letter About Palin Goes Viral
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:05:00 -0400
This week in Wasilla, Alaska, a woman named Anne Kilkenny sent a letter to some college friends about her former mayor, Sarah Palin. By week's end, the letter was pinging around the country and Kilkenny's phone was ringing off the hook.
Teen Sex, Sex Education And Sarah Palin
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:39:00 -0400
Gov. Sarah Palin has been a strong supporter of programs that advocate abstinence until marriage, and she also opposes explicit sex education. Alaska's law is silent on these issues, however, and it provides no specific funding for sex education in the schools.
Examining Palin's Pentecostal Background
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:14:00 -0400
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has electrified religious conservatives who see her as one of their own. The Republican vice presidential candidate brings evangelical credentials to the ticket and has a Pentecostal background.
The Talk of the Town
Dorothy Wickenden: An old-style, Los Angeles feminist on Obama.
Dorothy Wickenden Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Rosalind Wyman--seventy-seven years old; doughty feminist; political fund-raiser and philanthropist; hostess to J.F.K., Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, and Hollywood types too numerous to count; youngest elected member of the Los Angeles City Council (at the age of twenty-two); first woman to run a national political . . .
Lauren Collins: The Brooklyn painter Kehinde Wiley.
Lauren Collins Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The painter Kehinde Wiley first travelled to Nigeria in 1997. He was trying to find his father, whom he had never met, or, more crucially for a portraitist, seen. (His mother didn’t have any photographs.) After several weeks in Lagos, he found his dad, who welcomed him. But--like any . . .
James Surowiecki: What drives market volatility?
James Surowiecki Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
American investors are frazzled. True, oil prices have fallen from their most vertiginous highs, the dollar is a bit stronger, and the stock market has actually risen over the past month. But none of those things have happened in a smooth and steady fashion. The stock market’s “ascent,” in particular . . .
Why I Hate Microsoft - Microsoft's history, (nutshell version) and a general look and what they do, and why you should avoid them.
Appraising Microsoft - Official site of the Appraising Microsoft conferences headed by Ralph Nader and James Love.
Bill Sherwood's Anti-Microsoft Page - Personal accounts of low quality tech support and misleading advertising.
Does Issuing Passports Make Microsoft a Country? - Am I the only one who is terrified about Microsoft Passport? It seems to me like a fairly blatant attempt to build the world's largest, richest consumer database, and then make fabulous profits mining it.
Microsoft quietly shadows Web surfers across MSN sites - Days after acknowledging a privacy problem with its browser, Microsoft says its privacy policy does not say how it identifies people who travel across its network of Web sites. [CNet]
Meta Description: [ Microsoft quietly shadows Web surfers across MSN sites | Days after acknowledging a privacy problem with its browser, Microsoft says its privacy policy does not say how it identifies people who travel across its network of Web sites.
| September 13, 2000, 2:30 PM PT | Paul Festa ]
Microsoft Versus - Analysis and discussion of Microsoft and comparisons of their products against open source alternatives.
Microsoft's Stock Options As Tax Loopholes - Rob Landley of Motley Fool argues that Microsoft's size and methods allow it tactics to make money without even selling software.
404
Microsoft... It's a Problem - Why not use their products, their stock troubles, and some humor.
Microsoft: An empire built on stolen software - Microsoft is not the answer. Microsoft is the question. NO is the answer.
Meta Description: [ Alice Pages perso - Hébergement gratuit (100 Mo) et sans publicité pour les abonnés Alice - Noms de domaine et offres d'hébergement Premium ]
MSBC Superlist of Anti-Microsoft Web Sites - Indexes more than 250 anti-Ms links and forums: a comprehensive directory of anti-Microsoft activity around the Internet and around the world.
Meta Description: [ The most complete list of anti-Microsoft material on the Internet. ]
MSN Cookie Data Crosses Domains - How Microsoft web sites like HotMail and MSNBC assign unique ID numbers in cookies, and shares that ID with other web tracking sites.
MSN Pummels Privacy - It seems that at the same time Microsoft is closing one privacy hole they've been busy creating a bigger one: Universal GUIDs. [WinMag.com]
SecurityFocus: Microsoft Cookies jump Domains -
Meta Description: [ SecurityFocus is designed to facilitate discussion on computer security related topics, create computer security awareness, and to provide the Internet's largest and most comprehensive database of computer security knowledge and resources to the public. It also hosts the BUGTRAQ mailing list. ]
So Why Hate Microsoft? - Another look at unfair competition by Microsoft. Somewhat dated.
Meta Description: [ One of many Microsoft Hate pages. I used to like Microsoft but now I tell you why I want to make the change to another non Microsoft Operating System ]
The International Anti-Microsoft Network - Webring of anti-Microsoft, anti-Bill Gates, and anti-Wintel sites.
Meta Description: [ The Anti Microsoft Webring is a list of sites and resources that want or list alternatives to Microsoft Windows. Operating Systems such as Linux, Unix, Lindows, Be, and more. We now have over 40 sites ]
The Register: OS Expiration - Expiring OSes? Check the Windows 'best before' dates.
U.S. v. Microsoft - A month by month news collection of articles from Wired.com.
Meta Description: [ Get Wired's take on technology business news and the Silicon Valley scene including IT, media, mobility, broadband, video, design, security, software, networking and internet startups on Wired.com ]
500
ZDNet News: Economist: MS settlement won't help - Nobel prize-winning economist criticized the proposed settlement of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft.
Meta Description: [ Where Technology Means Business: ZDNet delivers the best tech news, and resources for IT hardware, software, networking and services. It's the top site for IT managers and tech-savvy business people. ]
| day operations at the software giant on Friday. He'll stay on as Microsoft Chairman, but will concentrate most of his ... | |
| Next Video | |
