> Just like Microsoft continues to push out software, that, compared to competitors, is unstable, insecure, frustrating to use, lacks features, etc, without it harming their reputation or even bottomlines too much.

Eh.... This is _kind_ of a counterfactual, tho. Like, we are not living in the world where MS did not do that. You could argue that MS was in a good place to be the dominant server and mobile OS vendor, and simply screwed both up through poor planning, poor execution, and (particularly in the case of server stuff) a complete disregard for quality as a concept.

I think someone who'd been in a coma since 1999 waking up today would be baffled at how diminished MS is, tbh. In the late 90s, Microsoft practically _was_ computers, with only a bunch of mostly-dying UNIX vendors for competition. And one reasonable lens through which to interpret its current position is that it's basically due to incompetence on Microsoft's part.