Microsoft: Trust or Antitrust? :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument

Microsoft: Trust or Antitrust? "Oh, come on, just trust me." Those six simple words have been the pleadings of many when, for whatever reason, they find themselves in a situation, where others don't give their actions or claims any credibility. They have nothing left to fall upon, except the hope that they can be thought of as trustworthy, and that others are willing to give them an opportunity. This is the situation Microsoft has found itself in, and in response, they have launched "Trustworthy Computing," a campaign to help gain credibility and respect in the marketplace. Why, you might ask, is a company that controls 90 percent of its market worried about public perception? Why would such a major influence in the computer industry shut down production of new software, in an attempt to correct countless errors? Why did Bill Gates hire Wieden and Kennedy, the advertising agency that gave us such things as the Nike Swoosh, to change Microsoft's public image? It is because the people at Microsoft have realized that consumers use their software not because they want to, but because they have no other choice. As I sit here writing my paper in Microsoft Word, listening to a CD play in Windows Media Player, surfing the internet for sources in Microsoft Internet Explorer, all parts of my Windows XP setup, it might seem that Microsoft has itself entrenched in my life and that of the computer industry. Yet, the powers that be at Microsoft aren't just sitting around watching their MS Office licensing fees come in, they've sounded the alarm. "There must have been a moment of crisis, either they were feeling insecure, or Microsoft was putting pressure on them," Erik Adigard, a former consultant for Microsoft, suggests. The root of the problem may be, as Sara Basse observed, "Programmers and system designers are often overconfident too, and do not give enough thought to the potential consequences of errors or poor design." Those oversights are the reason that Microsoft shut down most of its production of programs, and instead shifted resources to correct bugs and errors in pre-existing programs. One might then, wonder why Microsoft has sold programs with errors, and instead of taking the time to correct the mistakes of past versions, they have moved on to completely new concepts. It appears that Microsoft has gotten the message from its consumers. They have begun unprecedented disclosures of their codes to their competitors, so that they are better able to integrate their programs into Windows.