For me, it has less to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of their software, and it doesn't have anything to do with whether or not they are open source (availability of source code makes no difference to me, because I'm not a programmer).

For me, it's their illegal and anti-competitive business practices. I mean, threatening computer makers with revoking their Windows licenses just because they want to feature software that's not made by Microsoft? That alone pisses me off so much. Why can't they let the consumer decide what is best for them? If their products were truly superior to the alternatives, then they shouldn't have any problem letting users decide what they want. In a fair market, people would be aware of all choices and select the product that works best for them. For too long in the computer market, Microsoft has been dictating what consumers can choose, and it's got to stop.

If Microsoft were truly fair in the marketplace, and if their software was truly superior to the competition, then they wouldn't have any fear in allowing computer makers to bundle software of their choosing. In a healthy market, consumers have choices. Competition drives capitalism. Who knows? In a fair market, with all things being equal, people might still choose Microsoft. And they also might still choose someone else. But as it stands right now, consumers don't think they have any other choice other than Microsoft, be it with operating systems, office software, money software, internet browsers, whatever.

Don't get me wrong. Microsoft has done good for the computer industry, unifying the PC model and allowing for one operating system to run on multiple configurations. However, their time has long past, and now they are nothing more than a big bully trying to buy their way into preventing other choices for the consumer. So far, mostly because consumers aren't aware that there are other choices, they are succeeding. The best way for MS to fail in this endeavor is for people to be made aware of the alternatives, and tell people that they don't have to be a slave to Microsoft if they don't want to be.