1995 wants its argument back. Age old tech line, Win 95=Mac 87.

Take it into perspective, MS and Sony are trying to create a Wii feel to their consoles. Does it warrant the same cold shoulder as Windows 7?

Hell, even Ubuntu looks like OSX. It just compliments Apple for solid GUI design.

LOL i hate you =(

Do they deserve respect? No. Not as a game company.

The thread is titled 'Does MS deserve ANY respect' so yes.

As a game company, what do you not respect? Then with that, do you then also lack respect for Sony for the same issues? And what about Nintendo, who pretty much admitted to leaving behind what used to be their core gamer, and focusing almost solely on another demographic? What will it take for you to respect a game company?

Mostly just curious, I respect all 3, they all do whatever they need to get ahead in the business world, and I can respect that.

I know we love to split hairs and hold companies feet to the fire on things they've done wrong, but you can't just say MS is terrible without looking at what they have done right. Would the PSN be where it is if XBOX Live wasn't there first? Would Sony have released that delicious PS3 Slim redisign (it's pretty) without pressure from the 360 selling so well? Would Nintendo have come up with the Wii if their only competition was the PS3? (We can discuss whether the Wii is a good thing or not some other time, I think that it has opened the minds of the industry and will push things forward, even though I don't care for a lot of Wii software right now). Simply by coming into the market, basically replacing Sega as a hardware manufacturer, MS has helped to move the gaming industry forward. For that they deserve some respect. Evil or not (and they are evil), it should be hard to not respect anything about them.

I like your post CommonMan, few people try to gauge the effects of one company's decisions and ventures, they only look at the surface. In reality, there's no real way to determine the answers to your hypothetical questions there, but it sure is fun to think about.

Every company makes mistakes, I've sure learned it's kind of silly to hold everything against a company for a few transgressions. They all share a common goal, maximize profits. I doubt there exists even a single multi-million dollar company in this world that doesn't act to that end. And because of that, you should praise MS's ability as a business, since they're so far ahead of almost all their competition (other than Apple and Google).

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/03/0326_bw50/44.htm

If you can't respect those numbers, that's just silly.

answer in the post

even if I must say, the thread is not really about console history, but mostly about OS history. 

but dont you think that what they copied from MAc OS X is direct feature (see video) and not only some random and minor design stuff ?

oh, because Apple has stolen ideas from Xp ?

I didnt know this, can tell me what plz (real question), thx.

Dude, quite triple posting, it's bad form. Use the "edit button"

BTW, your entire reply to commonman...utter BS, but I think you know that already