Microsoft is the big brother of technology. It's loathed and admired in equal quantities. But it's a great business. Vista, formerly "Longhorn" and the next version of Windows (after XP) comes out next year. Yesterday, Microsoft bought Teleo. Clearly, already, we can expect Vista to have buttons/a simple click process to blog directly, accept RSS Feeds; make internet phone calls, organize our computer stuff, our computer desktop, our web experience in one spot. Theirs.

Forrester Research says that less than 5% of anyone on the net has read a blog. Microsoft is putting the new internet necessities together in widely available software This will popularize using these "new" ideas overnight. It's always an easy decision for operations guys in businesses to buy Microsoft software;  "No worries, everything we want is there"

That's without even considering all the other business process stuff (eg, better Contact Manager database/software) that Microsoft have been working on for years for Vista.  They are the great popularisers and spreaders of technology beyond the early adopters into the wider global marketplace.

In the process they work out how to make monetize every new development. No wonder people fear them.