Well, Microsoft has no strategic interest in helping the web, as that would interfere with their desktop products. This is well established. IE was just a big Trojan to slow (yes, slow) and mess the Web world.
Well, yeah, obviously. And the trojan is still doing damage.
Which is why I can't take astroturfing douchebag shills like snprbob86 et al and their promises of a happy happy fun fun friendly new MS seriously. A leopard can't change its spots. And until I see IE change - MS is the worst company in tech and everyone who works for them is culpable.
Regarding astroturfing: I work for Microsoft. It's no secret.
Regarding promises of a happy happy fun fun friendly new MS: I have no illusions. All I'm saying is assume incompetence, not malace. I'm also going further to say assume there are lots of smart, well intentioned people working hard on things that involve problems and complexities beyond the understanding of an engineer who has never worked on anything the scale of the Windows ecosystem.
For the record: I don't have Windows installed at home. I run Ubuntu on my desktop and Snow Leopard on my Macbook. I have an iPhone and primarily use Google web services. Hell, I was an intern at Google.
Personally, I'm at Microsoft to work on Xbox/Gaming. Among my co-workers I'm known as that guy who won't shut up about open source software, startups' web services, and Apple's great taste. You can call me culpable if you want, but I'm part of the solution, not the problem.
He was fucking linking to the IE site - how much more blatant do you want it?
Paid shills are douchebags and I am utterly unrepentant in saying that. Just because someone has an account here doesn't transform them into a paragon of integrity and virtue. You work for the bad guys, you take the criticism, that's how it works. Or are you suggesting there should be no social penalty whatsoever for contributing to the crippling of the WWW? How much damage have they done? How much is 5 years of progress worth?
I will never tone down my attacks on these pricks. It's my honest opinion and I'm going to say it. I feel no need to maintain a "professional" demeanour or keep up appearances. I hate those motherfuckers, and I want them to know it.
Despite the somewhat inflammatory ad hominem remark (I had to look up "astroturfing".. yay urbandictionary), I do agree with what is likely a controversial sentiment:
A reference, just off the top of my head, is Spolsky's API War: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html