Noun

Singular Microsoft

Plural Microsofts

Microsoft (plural Microsofts)

1. (figuratively) a company whose products are ubiquitous
   • 2001, Daniel Charles, Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food (ISBN 0738202916), page 110:

     Similarly, said Fraley, farmers were going to demand Bt cotton or Roundup-resistant soybean plants no matter where they went shopping for seeds. Monsanto would be the Microsoft of agriculture.

   • 2005, Merrill Goozner, The $800 Million Pill: The Truth Behind the Cost of New Drugs (ISBN 0520246705), page 64:

     The company wanted to turn Celera into the Microsoft of the gene-hunting world, selling its version of the human genome to private or public gene hunters through a proprietary computer program.

   • 2006, Andrew Beaujon, Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock (ISBN 0306814579), page 232:

     Shepherding is more or less gone (though there’s an interesting move back toward discipleship in today’s church especially among those influenced by Rick Warren’s blockbuster book The Purpose-Driven Life), but Integrity remains as sort of the Microsoft of worship music.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEX: 4338) is a public multinational corporation based in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system (OS) market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of OSs. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Microsoft would come to dominate other markets as well, notably the office suite market with Microsoft Office.

Critics contend Microsoft uses monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, puts unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and uses misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws. Known for its interviewing process with off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?", various studies and ratings were generally favorable to Microsoft's diversity within the company as well as its overall environmental impact with the exception of the electronics portion of the business.

• Anti-Microsoft Activism@ (13)
• Articles (36)
• Humor@ (23)
• Monopoly Issues@ (31)
• SCO-IBM Lawsuit@ (13)

See also:

• Computers: Companies: Microsoft Corporation (18)

• Microsoft Versus
  msversus.org
  Analysis and discussion of Microsoft and comparisons of their products against open source alternatives.
• MSN Cookie Data Crosses Domains
  pc-help.org
  How Microsoft web sites like HotMail and MSNBC assign unique ID numbers in cookies, and shares that ID with other web tracking sites. (September 3, 2000)
• Appraising Microsoft
  appraising-microsoft.org
  Official site of the Appraising Microsoft conferences headed by Ralph Nader and James Love.