How Much Is Windows Worth To You?

WSJ.com - Portals: "Most technology companies that do well justify the money they make by saying that is what is required to fund innovation, that were it not for all the profits they were accumulating, the industry would be standing still.

The claim is suspect. The disk-drive industry, for one, manages to release drives with ever-larger capacities while often barely breaking even. And the technical challenges they face are among the most formidable, involving squeezing more and more bits of data onto ever smaller portions of a rapidly spinning magnetically charged platter. ...

That leaves Microsoft, and the question: What does the world get for the 10% Microsoft tax on every PC?"