That's SIR Gates to You Motherfucker!

[Arc Orion]

Yeah, it's extremely common for software ideas to be stolen amongst the different companies.

[billf]

Just recently (within the past year) Adobe and Macromedia had a pretty heafty lawsuit with Adobe claiming Macromedia stole some pieces of their software design (tabbed floating windows was part of it I think). Macromedia countersued listing a bunch of stuff Adobe stole from Macromedia.

The case ended up in a stalemate with neither company paying the other one a dime.

[Deacon]

The whole concept of "stealing ideas" in the software industry is about as ludicrous as people "stealing ideas" for sitcoms. Tabbed floating windows?? NO WAY! So revolutionary! Nobody has ever come up with or ever will come up with such a concept--except you!

[edge]

To expand a bit on some things said above, and being that I worked with several companies that produce applications (usually web-based), I know first hand that there is no easy fix for "all of the problems" that are out there. So much of the problem with Windows is the fact that it's been around so long, and that one version is built off another, the only way to really weed out much of the bugs would be to build from the ground up, which really isn't a worthwhile prospect for MS, simply because of the cost and the fact that "it's good enough". As much as I prefer *nix or Mac OS to Windows, I don't concider myself a fanboy of any OS. There are some things that Windows happens to be better at, which you just have to admit. What really cracks me up is those who are hard set that Windows is the best thing out there. A buddy of mine refuses to even learn about other OSs, because "Windows is so great!"

Although I often times like to crack a joke about windows, or whine about a particular problem (who doesn't?), I'm really not anti-windows.
Personally, I work on a "case to case" basis, if you will. When I'm setting up a machine for my own use, I concider what it's going to do, and what the best possible solution would be. For example, if you're going to have a machine run as nothing but an FTP and File server, do you really need to install Server 2003? Sure, it'll get the job done, but it's not necessary. Why spend the money (assuming you are doing things the legal way), when you could download a free install of some flavor of Linux, and get the same results, with easier management? Then again, if you are setting up a controlled environment, AD is very nice and easy to learn.

I believe that open-mindedness is important when it comes to IT solutions.

[Deacon]

"with easier management" ...heh, I guess that depends quite a bit