With the upcoming work on IE9 I'm inclined to disagree. I've bashed on Microsoft as much as anyone else but things are changing. They're in position to grab a lot of favor for their brand. I'd love to see the day when benevolent and Microsoft weren't antonyms.
In fact, more's the pity. Microsoft is quite capable of producing great and standards-compliant software, and they often deliberately choose not to do this.
Stop thinking about corporations in terms of 'evil' and 'good'. Start thinking about whether their interests are aligned with yours.
Google was 'good' for many years because their growth required an open, standards-compliant internet. That period is ending.
"Start thinking about whether their interests are aligned with yours."
You're definitely right about that. That's why I commented on Microsoft's attempt to play nice. It's also why I'm concerned about the new face of Google. The more we punish/reward companies based on their actions the more their actions will begin to suit us.
"Stop thinking about corporations in terms of 'evil' and 'good'"
No. If enough people start "thinking about corporations in terms of 'evil' and 'good'" then evil will fail. Capitalism is about getting people what they want and rewarding the people who made it happen. We just need to make sure that less technically inclined people also want "good".
Things are indeed changing, but I don't think it's for the better; five years ago they weren't demanding that companies pay them license fees in order to be allowed to use Linux, Samba, and other software they didn't write.
