For many people - including some Windows Watch commenters - Microsoft represents all that is evil and wrong in the world. For some, it may be a simple example of anticapitalism - Microsoft is a large company that makes lots of money, so if you hate the idea of businesses making money it's an obvious target. But then many people who hate Microsoft also love Apple - which is, of course, a large company that makes shedloads of money. What's more, it's certain that there are more Microsoft-haters out there than there are No-Logo-toting Linux fans that never drink Coca Cola, so many people must be perfectly happy with some large corporations, just not with Microsoft.

I'd suggest that the reason for many people's dislike of Microsoft is simple: they enjoy having something to hate, and a huge corporate entity is as good a target as any. After all, focusing your rage on the man next door might have unforseen and unpleasant consequences, but shouting abuse at Word 2007 is fairly safe (at least until Microsoft builds in working speech recognition and an office assistant that can give as good as it gets). What's more, hating Microsoft is popular, and everyone loves a bandwagon to jump on.

With this in mind, I've tried to compile a list of genuinely sensible reasons to hate, or at least dislike, Microsoft. And they are:

1. Anti-competitive behaviour, as highlighted by the EU's long running legal process
2. Some staggeringly shoddy web browsers (anyone remember the Tantek box-model hack for IE5?) that generally failed to render almost anything correctly, but which destroyed Netscape. It should be noted that IE7, although not perfect, is a great improvement
3. Security holes aplenty, although most are patched (whether they're patched quickly enough is an argument for another day)
4. DRM. Microsoft makes it, and some people hate it - but of course Apple develops and sells DRM, too, so anyone who buys Apple products can't jump on this one
5. Microsoft's Reno office (if you are a US taxpayer, at least)
6. ActiveX in general
7. Embrace, Extend and Extinguish - allegedly
8. That eyeball-searing video of Steve Ballmer (click here, if you must)

And that's about it. Now, several of these are annoying, and some disconcerting, but none seem to me as significantly more troublesome as the behaviour of other companies of a similar size. And, if one accepts free market capitalism as the way forward (I'll assume that most readers will take this as a given, but prove me wrong, comrades) then a company producing the best product in its field, and thus becoming hugely rich, is surely the logical conclusion of this system rather than some sort of aberration. What's more, it's not as if Microsoft's founders have ever given huge chunks of money away.

All in all, I remain unconvinced. I'll continue  to use Windows XP and Word almost every day, although where possible I'll also support alternatives, be they the iPod (if you choose not to buy DRM'd music, the Classic is a fantastic music player), Nokia's Symbian phones (better than Windows Mobile in every way, IMHO) or Firefox and Thunderbird. But can you convince me - have I missed something from the list? If so, add it in the comments.