But that's their image. That's why they can get away with charging what they do....

dredmorbius · on July 16, 2012

Oddly enough -- that was also Microsoft's self-image for many, many years.

The were the maverick to IBM's stodgy conformist.

Not that I saw them that way.

beagle3 · on July 16, 2012

I don't think anyone outside Microsoft saw it that way later than 1990 or so.

From talking to microsofties, though, they had the underdog/maverick image internally at least until 2005. All the techies I knew left MS long ago, and all the business people I know at MS joined in the last 3-5 years and never bought into the "underdog" image.

rhizome · on July 16, 2012

I don't know about "rogue/maverick," but I'll take "good" in a world of companies still rehashing 20 year-old laptop designs.