> Perhaps the negativity stems from the all the illegal, immoral, and damaging acts in this era.
Perhaps, but hate against Microsoft was not the point of the discussion. You are free to see them in whichever light you want, I just don't understand why you have to down-vote me or bring that into completely different discussion.
The question here was about the technical issues and their work on making software tick despite people abusing the API and producing buggy software. That has nothing to do with hate against Microsoft. To me that sounds like a whataboutism.
By the way, I personally don't even use Windows, I have been 100% Linux user since many years and have contributed to a GNU project, I am not some Microsoft fanboy as you might see me. But I see no value in defending a wrong, and I see the same behavior repeated in other communities. People abuse the API or don't read the documentation or just are plain idiots, and than accuse the developers for being malicious or stupid or whatever when things break. That behavior is bad for anyone, regardless if it is against Microsoft or some GNU project.
> In short people hated them for being shitty people who do shitty things and present leadership were important folks when these shitty things were done everyone just moved up a few rings.
I am sure people have many reasons they hate something or someone for, Microsoft included. There are people who passionately hate GNU, Linux, FSF, you name it. If you justify such behavior, it is your choice, but I am not interested in that discussion. I was talking about people abusing API and than blaming Microsoft for incompetence or deliberate evil, while the company obviously went to quite long efforts to make things work, even for buggy software. Microsoft may as well be evil or good for other reasons, but wasn't really the point of discussion.
> They aren't better people they just have better aligned incentives where illegality and immorality aren't profitable.
This is outright dangerous behavior on your part. You are transferring a behavior you have projected on a company over the entire group of people, all the thousands of people who work for Microsoft. To start with, they are all individuals, and as in every group there are good and bad characters among them. Also, history is against you, Microsoft was, and still is very profitable company. In the time we speak about, they were probably too profitable for its own best. For the second there are law and law enforcement officials to decide if they did illegal business or not.
Not to mention, that probably most of those who worked there back in 90's are probably retired or have changed the job by now. Also, to note, with thinking and statements like that one, you are denying people chance to develop as individuals and become better persons.