as a windows 98 user, my hatred runs high at times. (~3 crashes at startup before it will actually start.) i'm not going to speak on microsoft business practices, because you all probably know of them already. just remember: monopoly legislation was written in the late 1800s to counter monopolies. monopolies are not good for business. while it may be morally sound to be one, it doesn't bode well for the competitors or the consumer.
overall, microsoft is just another company that is exceptionally good at what it does (which is everything software-related). the problem isn't microsoft, it's the lack of strong competitors. sure, there's netscape, aol/time warner, palm corp., and macintosh. but microsoft is a substantial competitor against all of these companies. there's no significant united force trying to take microsoft customers away.