> Microsoft has definitely earned their hatred in both the consumer and development communities.
Mostly from clueless people. Link baiters. And fools who get off on blaming and attacking others (it's a group/mob thing).
The other 5%-10% is valid criticism.
> Literally noone I have met in the past 10 years is developing Windows software anymore.
You're living in your own cornered off world.
Microsoft has 90% of the desktop market, rave reviews of their new mobile platform, 60 billion in the bank, absolutely fantastic developer tools that are not matched by anything else, full integration in the stack.
> absolutely fantastic developer tools that are not matched by anything else
I bought Windows 2000 and MSVC 2003 with the first money I ever made through terrible teenager webdev. I was a huge VS fan until I first touched an iBook G4, and even now, I really wish I found a reason to get a Lumia 800. Windows 7 is georgous for consumers.
Still, after five years on Apple and Unix, I find it absolutely impossible to go back to Windows development. And it's definitely a group thing, none of my friends really knows how to work on Windows either. They appreciate what Microsoft is doing lately, but they shrug and stay in their corner of the computing universe.
I think you underestimate the brain drain (= SANE people) out of the Microsoft camp, especially during the Vista years.
Mostly from clueless people. Link baiters. And fools who get off on blaming and attacking others (it's a group/mob thing).
The other 5%-10% is valid criticism.
> Literally noone I have met in the past 10 years is developing Windows software anymore.
You're living in your own cornered off world.
Microsoft has 90% of the desktop market, rave reviews of their new mobile platform, 60 billion in the bank, absolutely fantastic developer tools that are not matched by anything else, full integration in the stack.