Cars used to break down all the time. People would call to reschedule meetings because "my car is in the shop". Cars hardly ever break any more, unless it's something BIG. Superior quality control was basically forced on the industry by Toyota, who was looking for a differentiating advantage.
I reminded a buddy of those bad old days when things went wrong with cars, and he said "Oh yeah, back when the car makers didn't care about quality".
Software is pretty much like that still. Complicated. Regular, routine tech support is required. Mechanics are on every corner. It's a lot better than it was in the bad old days of DOS, but we're still a long way from the day when our moms will never need to call to ask what to do now.
While Microsoft has brought tremendous benefits to users over the years, there is also relatively little pressure on them from external competitors. So here's to Firefox and Linux and the other David's out there hurling pebbles at Goliath. We all benefit.
