[sfphotoarts]

Microsoft do a lot of things well, like sales and marketing, but I'm not sure technology is one of them. I cannot think of any technology they have done really well. Browers, phone/computer operating systems etc.. IUnknown - please! I guess c# is a well designed and thought out language, but I've been a software engineer for 20 years and thankfully haven't had to go anywhere near a MSFT technology in many years. I have nothing against them as a company, they just don't make anything that I have found to be relevant for quite a while.

[bad_user]

I'm also not using Microsoft's stack, the Unix world having grown on me, but I think you're mistaken.

Their flagship product, Windows, has some poor design decisions in it, decisions that were dictated mostly by their customers ... you can read "The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows" by Raymond Chen for some insights on this.

But otherwise the Windows programming model is pretty solid and consistent (usually).

[krschultz]

There is a difference between "best" and "well".

They make their products solid enough that there isn't a mass exodus. If Vista destroyed people's data at an unacceptable rate you better believe Apple would be even better today. But they made Windows well enough that the problems are only an inconvenience not a crisis.