If there was a car manufacturer whose vehicles shut down every day or two while they were being driven and crashed, you probably wouldn't rush out and buy one, would you? Then why is it that people buy Microsoft software? The only thing I can think of is that people just don't know that there is anything wrong. On this page I will try to record some of the more severe standards violations and bugs in Microsoft software that I have personally come across that I have not seen documented elsewhere.

Due to Microsoft not knowing how and not caring about writing good software or following standards, this page that you are reading is NOT viewable using MSIE versions up to 5.5!

All versions of MSIE that I have checked up to version 5.5 convert any backslash in a URL into a forward slash. I am told that this "feature" was finally removed in version 6.0. I guess the MSIE architects thought they were doing stupid users a favor by "correcting" any backslash they type into a forward slash. Of course, a backslash is an acceptable character in a URL (see RFC 1738), and in fact is even required for providing authentication information in a URL for Microsoft's own NT password system (where they use usernames like "na01\ck").

I guess it's not surprising. In the mid to late 1980's when Microsoft was trying to market its Microsoft Mail product, it positioned it as an alternative to using Internet email (SMTP). It tried to convince clients that the Internet would not be a relevant tool for business-to-business communication, and that companies should use Microsoft Mail instead of Internet (SMTP) email. Exchange was based on that protocol, and is inherently incompatible with SMTP email, since Exchange reserves certain characters for special purposes, that are valid characters in email addresses using SMTP. So, Microsoft Exchange violates RFC 822.

If you have an email address with a comment and an equals sign in it, Microsoft Exchange will not try to deliver it to the specified address, but instead will interpret your correctly specified email address as part of its internal directory lookup notation and return an error (assuming it doesn't get an invalid match to something else). An example of such an address that would fail is

hrid=12345@kom.com (Valid Address)

1. Own your very own examples of badly written, bloated code
2. Use operating systems that crash often, so you can loose your work and start over again often
3. Consistent lack of security across all software--great if you are a hacker
4. Run software that consumes more CPU cycles and memory than necessary--great if you are a hardware manufacturer
5. Susceptible to a wide range of viruses and worms
6. Frequent software updates provide opportunities to spend large sums of money
7. Chance to support a huge monopoly that stiffles competition
8. Chance to support a company that engages in unethical business practices
9. Use software that ignores standards and RFCs whenver possible
10. Because you don't want to use free open software that actually works like Linux or Solaris when you can pay for the privilege of using Microsoft's creations