On Breaking Up Microsoft

Hello Ben,

I've just been enjoying your Windows error messages pages. It reminded me of a signature that some people are using:

Microsoft: This Company has performed an

illegal operation and will be shut down.

I may even be able to make a sensible comment about one silly message -- in "Confusion Abounds". I've noticed a lot of applications, including bits of Windows95 like Notepad, still can't cope with long filenames. (Typing paths in quotes and using 8.3 format sometimes solves it, but is no help when the path has been dreamed up by an app.)

Better get back to the site ...

Submitted by: Derek Potter 

As I post this, a Federal Judge has just ordered the breakup of Microsloth ... er, Microsoft ... and dear old Bill is on the tube complaining that a breakup will hurt the quality of computer software?  Talk about someone who lives in an ivory tower ...

Hey, maybe Bill should be trying for a recording contract. His first single could be a retake of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do..."  (Yes, we know -- he's singing that tune everyday on the news.)

Any suggestions for the flip side?

Reader Robert Maize offers this image from the Pasadena IBM Users Group. 

The actual source application, of course, remains anonymous ...

<Previous: Why Reboot?>

<Next: The Whole Story?>