[jammer]

Now, given your impatience with MS, how many operating systems have you written?

Jeez. What a question. How many automobiles have you built? Do you have to build one--or just pay for one--to be angry when it breaks?

[TopQuark]

Do you have to build one--or just pay for one--to be angry when it breaks? Of course not. The question, is at what or at whom? Naturally, you could blame the misfortune, the fact that things get old, etc. It isquite another, which is the case here, is to raise the accusatory finger at someone without a slightest reason.

You may have rightfully disliked my question, but thethrust of it was correct: before you curse MS (or another manufacturer), one has tohave at least a vague idea about the issues involved.

One could develop a notion that, after a century of building autos it's time for the price to be in the hundreds of dollars and, G-d darn it, the only reason we pay tens of thousands instead is because "they" just overcharge us. Pretty stupid, isn't it? Well, it is not more correct or more smart with regard to software: people that demonstrate the absence of basic understanding of software design and project management ridicule or accuse MS that is a conglomeration of the best talent on the planet.