For many people, especially lots of techies, nothing is more offensive than praise for Microsoft. After I wrote in this column two weeks ago that I had liked Bill Gates' speech at Comdex and found in it several impressive Microsoft innovations, I was besieged with e-mail from readers who called me crazy, biased, corrupt, or all three. I was clearly understating the matter when I wrote in the original column that many readers would disagree. At least vitriol can inspire entertaining prose. Here are excerpts from five different e-mails I received:
"Get a clue. Microsoft just sits around on its mountain of cash tinkering with other peoples' ideas which it has stolen and uses its market clout to shove the original and real innovators out the door."
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