Microsoft Trained Brain Syndrome

I've seen all too many sufferers of Microsoft Trained Brain Syndrome, but just like any other addiction there is hope that with effort rehabilitation is possible.  I am living proof that MTBS is not a fatal condition.  For almost the entirety of the 1990s, with the exception of using Amiga OS for the first few years of that decade, I was inside of the Microsoft MSDOS and Windows bubble.  I'd met people who knew something about Unix, but that seemed very foreign, and to have had any experience of Unix meant that you had to have either been a computer scientist or worked for a large corporation.  In contrast I'd grown up with 8 bit home computers, and just been familiar with whatever software happened to predominate in the consumer computing marketplace.  Also in the UK Apple hardware was not common in the 1980s and 90s, since it was typically far more expensive than other kinds of home computer.

It was only in the early 2000s that I began to entertain the possibility that there might be a world outside of the Microsoft ecosphere.  The main factors encouraging me to explore this terra incognita were things like:

• Software upgrades becoming less about improved technology and more about Microsoft wanting you to buy the latest version with a certain amount of arm twisting.

• Trying to find ways to avoid having to waste time dealing with malware, and the increasingly unpleasant consequences of installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
  

• Looking for cheaper solutions to the same problems (like replacements for Outlook).
  

• Microsoft abandoning older versions of their software, which then became unusable due to security vulnerabilities.
  

• The cost of Microsoft software continuing to escalate, despite an increasingly large market and economies of scale which would normally push prices down.  This did change for development tools in recent years, with the Express versions becoming free, but by then I was already outside of the Microsoft box.
   
• Irritation with the cognitive dissonance associated with ubiquitous pirated software and Windows Genuine Advantage.  Having to tell people that they should buy a copy of Windows which cost more than the (sometimes second hand) computer they were using.

• Microsoft's refusal to do anything with Internet Explorer, having won the "browser wars".

• Annoyance that Microsoft wasn't dealing with fundamental issues, such as the OS slowing down over time and requiring re-installations.