Comments on: Microsoft 'ecosystem' is biggest, survey says

The software giant commissioned IDC to survey the economic impact of IT and Microsoft in 82 countries.

[Galaxy5]

There's a lot of pond scum in the world, too

Numbers mean little when your mediocracy precedes you.

No one gives awards out to pipe manufacturers or sewer plant
operators - but they keep a vital part of society operating as
well. The crucial difference is that with Microsoft playing these
societal roles, we'd have sewerage in the streets and
substandard waste treatment.

If I wanted to recycle my grey water for gardening, I'd either
have to be trained well (linux) or pay a little more (Mac OS X) to
ensure that I don't get sick. On the other hand, folks who want
to dump crappy water in their gardens deserve all of the fun that
Exchange...uh, I mean e. coli an visit upon them.

It's a bit out of scope, but the increasing rates of bacterial
infection upon mass-food consumers has roughly paralleled the
rise in virii and exploits for the 'most popular' OS.

[galacticcruiser]

Agreed!

Funny analogy! I would say that instead of "most popular", maybe you mean most "popular" :)

It just feels like yet another self-congratulating survey. What were the negatives, for example?

[Neville Bartos]

Well said

To Microsoft, it's exactly that; a numbers game. When your goal is purely to create revenue, who cares if there's sewerage on the streets? Most people are so used to it, they know no better. A cheap fix to clean it up, and back on their mary way.

[John Beagle]

Pond Scum takes many forms

Everyone wants to call Microsoft names, but no one can be em.

Microsoft is not paying societal roles, I don't even know what that means.

Rock on Microsoft!

[rashinal]

it's all about this :

"In the case of Microsoft, for every dollar it earns, partners earn
just under eight dollars."

because it says two imortant things.

one, that for every dollar you have to pay MS (which is a
ridiculous lot), you have to pay nearly eight to other companies
in order to actually make the MS product worthwhile. (and yet
it's supposed to be 'cost effective" !)
two, the huge industry push to live in an MS universe is, in large
part, driven by the money you can force companies (users) to
spend once they commit (are trapped) in the MS product
hegemony.
ie., for support, protection, xtension, etc..