MS congeniality

Microsoft is bound to suffer security problems. If 90 per cent of the world's population read the same newspaper, the number of corrections would hot up too

It pays to be average. Anything too extreme and we criticise, ridicule and moan. As a business, do very well or very badly and you could suffer for it. Being average is far, far more acceptable.

Microsoft, the biggest software vendor in the world, is a case in point. Moaning about the latest Windows security flaw has become a full-time hobby for many IT users.

But the fact that Microsoft is so ubiquitous means a higher number of security breaches will be discovered. If 90 per cent of the population read the same newspaper, I can guarantee the corrections column would have to be expanded.

The fact that it is acceptable to sit and bad-mouth a company, which admittedly has its faults - and some pretty big ones at that - but which most of us are using every day, is quite ridiculous.

For example, the software giant has been announcing security upgrades and trying to enhance security features in Windows for years. It recently announced plans to launch Internet Explorer 7.0 with extra security, and the world continues to moan.

But you have to hand it to the vendor. By making the additional security features available only to users of XP, it is forcing people to upgrade to get better security that really should have been there in the first place.

But this is business. And being part of a successful business means you are not here to play friendly. The whole inception of the company back in the 1980s, with the IBM and MS-DOS debacle, is proof of that.

But Microsoft is in a tricky position. While it tries to please users by updating security and announcing that it will sell anti-virus and simply give away anti-spyware software, it may not be pleasing others. The software giant already has relationships with many security vendors, and must be careful not to alienate its allies.

Resellers, on the other hand, are more upbeat. They understand that users will become less agitated if there are fewer security lapses in the operating system, while they will still be able to sell the Symantecs and McAfees of this world because, resellers claim, Microsoft still has a long way to go before it is seen as a leader in security. And the upgrade opportunities won't go down badly either.