[radicalbyte]

I agree regards Google (just beware I'm a massive Google fanboy) but I think that Microsoft do deserve at least a little bit of credit.

Microsoft gave us (counting only OSS and things they effectively gave away):

1. Microsoft Basic, the first language of a large number of developers in the 35+ age group. This was effectively given away which is part of why it was so popular (it was a small, fixed-price fee instead of the per-unit licensing)

2. TypeScript

3. C# and the CLR

4. Visual Studio Code

5. Since 2010 they've made large contributions to Open Source.

Commercially they've also been strong competition to enterprise players like Oracle and IBM and of course have done a huge amount for gaming.

Apple are narcissists, they're all take take take. They do, however, provide very strong competition which pushes other players to improve.

[SpEd3Y]

I agree. Love C#, VS Code and TypeScript. Microsoft changed a bit lately. But there's a lot of history with Microsoft and the recent CoPilot ripping off OSS code and blocking C# support in VS Code are still mudding the waters.