Microsoft is one of the largest and most profitable tech companies in the world, but sometimes we can’t help but feel a bit sorry for them.
Why? Because the online community won’t cut them any slack whatsoever. There is so little love shown that it’s scary. If there’s even the slightest chance that something can be blamed on Microsoft, it will.
Whatever the exact opposite of goodwill is, Microsoft has plenty of it.
Case in point: The recent Skype outages
The ink has barely dried on the Skype acquisition deal but people are already blaming Microsoft for the recent Skype outages (and there have been some significant ones the past couple of weeks).
Some of this is just sarcasm, but it reminds us of that Blame Canada song from South Park. It’s kind of amusing, and a bit baffling.
How about some perspective?
The Skype acquisition was announced just one month ago. We’d bet the farm (with all the cows and chickens) that Skype is operating on exactly the same infrastructure now as it did before the deal was announced. Skype may switch platforms down the line, but hardly this fast.
Truth is, any problems Skype is having now most likely have absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft. These problems are caused by baggage that came with Skype and Skype’s current code base (which was not developed by Microsoft).
Sure, Microsoft has done – and continues to do – some not-so-smart things, and has a history of being positively draconian at times, but if you’re going to complain about Microsoft, how about doing so for things that are actually their fault? 😉
