For years, many techie types have considered Microsoft an Evil Empire of consumer electronics, crushing competition and innovation and maintaining a reign of mediocrity.
That’s why two years ago, mild-mannered Bill Gates was booed when he delivered a keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — and why, earlier this year, a Hungarian student threw eggs at new Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. For a long time, it’s been cool to hate Microsoft and fun to root against it, but that may be changing.
