Haha keep rocking M$ :D

can you please go and research before posting false accusations, they got sued for it!

And they even cloned CP/M to make MS-DOS. Nothing they've ever done has been original or innovative.

1.) There are tons of avi to wmv converters out there, pick one up.  If you can't find a free one then buy one if you need it.

2.) That is an issue with your school, not microsoft.  You should take it up with your school, and have them provide you with what you need, or use school resources to create the files you can't use at home.

Very true, indeed...

Same here, it's absolutely hilarious to follow this stuff. XD

Incidentally, this is false. A clean-room reverse-engineered software or hardware emulator is perfectly legal.

In the same way, the Samba guys reverse-engineered MS's SMB network protocol in a perfectly legal way.

As to their IPs, they can leverage them alright. It's just that they are doing a disservice to the users, so much that many States started to request open standards for files of public interest, thus excluding .doc files and moving towards the OpenOffice XML standard. Which in turn caused MS to start the transition to their new OOXML file format and the following ISO fiasco (google for it).

Microsoft bob was pretty original :0

1) Okay, but it's still illegal to use them without directly or indirectly paying royalties to MS. I'm trying to make the point that through bundling stuff and using closed formats, they are deliberately obstructing competition. Not that it's impossible to circumvent this but for an average user who has no clue they just stick with MS and for people with more experience they rely on one or more Windows-only apps. Not that it's illegal but I think it's a sad state of affairs.

2) Actually it's a legal requirement in the UK that schools use Windows (software must be from authorised suppliers), and a county council requirement that schools use IE according to the IT department. So I can't argue against it. I have repeatedly asked if teachers could make files availble in formats I can read without breaking the law or having compatibility issues (specifically not WMA, WMV, MP3, Office, etc.) but this has been refused. I was banned from the IT system for running programs on my account to read the files I send from home).

@WoW

When I can use Linux and still have access to everything I would have if I ran Windows, I will stop being angry about it. I'm not expecting MS to suddenly lose marketshare.

UI compared to DOS. I fully realize there were other GUIs out when Windows was released, mainly Apple's. And overall, Windows 1.0-2.1 were just addendums to DOS. It's with DOS that Microsoft started dominating and putting a computer everywhere. Again, back then theonly other serious competitor was Apple and they just overpriced their computers. Under that the computer would not have spread so fast and so quickly. The only reason Internet grew so fast was because computers were so widespread by the time it was taking off. There is no Internet without the computers to use it.

Also you mention OS/2, which was developed by IBM and Microsoft, and Microsoft even said OS/2 was the future, calling it Windows Plus. The problem was, just like Apple, Windows 3.0 and DOS came out bundled with just about all computers manufactured, rather cheaply to, while OS/2 sold at retailers and cost a lot more than the bundled Window 3.0, not to mention the lack of drivers for like printers and other things not made by IBM.

The other real competitors came way after computers were widespread (Linux in '91 or so) and there probably would not have been complaining bitching people if they didn't have access to computers to begin with. Access granted by Microsoft.

Look I'm no lover of Microsoft, I'm a CS major and I'd love to get the source code, however credit where credit is due. Microsoft propelled the explosions of the computers, and solely Microsoft. If it had been left to other competitors, with the prices they wanted, we wouldn't have even reached the point where the internet would have begun to be used on such a wide scale, much less have people bitch about companies stifling it. Hate it, spit on it, but the reason why you're enjoying information traded so easily is because of Microsoft.