Not Windoze

Microsoft's (stock ticker symbol MSFT) new "Vista" operating system distribution was supposed to be the most secure OS MSFT has ever shipped, and it may be. But that's not saying much. And Vista is turning out to be nearly as bad as its predecessors, which is a whole lot worse than any other modern OS.

Unlike any other software company, MSFT has a business imperative to make its products as complex as possible. They're the "standard" and the complexity inhibits compatible competition like SAMBA and WINE.

It's a well known principle of software engineering that excessive complexity indicates a poor design and poor design management. A program that's a whole lot more complicated than it needs to be will have a whole lot more bugs than a simple program with the same function. In MSFT's case, it's intentional. They'd rather have a brittle, vulnerable product than competition, and their customers have no say in the matter.