Google has an informal Corporate Motto – “Don’t be Evil”
Microsoft today finally came out and announced that they will be selling an antivirus / antispyware product for $49.99 per year. You can find the ZDNet report here. If this doesn’t meet the definition of PURE EVIL in the IT world, I don’t think anything will.
This just makes my Blood Boil. I cannot believe that people are going to let Microsoft get away with this! Am I living in some Twilight Zone? Can’t people see the how WRONG this is? Microsoft is going to charge you for a product that protects you against viruses, worms and spyware that ONLY exist BECAUSE of the vulnerabilities in their lousy operating system. And of course they will pre-install this as a “trial” on every new PC and I am sure as soon as it reaches expiration, the Nag popups will begin. Grandmas all over the world and Joe six pack will pony up their “protection money” because GASP they got a “Windows Warning” that told them they were unprotected. Despite all the evangelism of the Robert Scobles of this world, this company has proven time and again that it has zero ethics. This is the last straw for me. This once and for all proves to me that this company has NO redeeming qualities whatsoever. And I don’t care how many zillions Bill Gates gives to charity.
A while back, when I saw this move coming (when Microsoft bought Giant antispyware and GeCAD antivirus), I sent an email to my friend Matt. He told me that after reading that article he was genuinely angry, and would swear off Microsoft if this ever became a reality. I guess he got to keep his word as he recently acquired an iMac.
I am so ANGRY today that I can’t even come up with proper analogies. Imagine if your doctor tomorrow was sloppy in your treatment and caused you to have multiple ailments. And this happened over and over again. And the doctor absolved himself of ALL responsibility and blamed you and the big bad world for all your problems. Now imagine the same doctor wants to charge you for additional medicine to treat the very ailments he was responsible for! And you have to pay this protection racket money year after year. In the real world, you would sue this doctor out of existence and the AMA would revoke his license. But in the twilight zone I seem to be living in, we reward this kind of behavior by making Microsoft the richest company in the world.
Can’t anyone see that the only way for the Windows one care business to be successful is for Microsoft to continue to have vulnerabilities and for there to be a million viruses and worms that plague it? If the new Windows Vista is the ultimate Secure OS, would there be any need for Windows One Care? When the Windows security team discovers a new vulnerability do you think they will share that info with Kaspersky or AVG ?
I am genuinely angry and depressed today. The lack of moral outrage on the part of the tech media has made me lose all faith in them. I am reminded of a Simpsons episode, when Burns takes a recycling factory and makes animal paste by sweeping the ocean clean. Lisa tells him “You haven’t changed at all. You’re still evil. And when you’re trying to be good, you’re even more evil!” That to me, is Microsoft in a nutshell.
Yes, as the URL of this website states I truly DESPISE this company. And with good reason.