I think it's perfectly fine that people enjoy using MS Messenger, IE, and Outlook Express. The usage of these products is not a point of annoyance for me, what is annoying is the fact that MS takes MY choice which IM product, which browser, and which email client I should use away from me. Despite the fact that it's MY compute, MS decides that what features I should have installed on my system. This is absolutely unacceptable. Before Mozilla, I also prefered MS on the PC. I even liked Outlook (it beats all the other free email clients on the PC). I never used MS Messenger b/c no one I know uses it.
MS can provide any freeware they want, in fact I think it's a good thing, but just don't cram them down my throat! People have shown with MS Windows 98 that by removing IE complete (using IEradicator) the installed Netscape Navigator 4.x became completely stable and crashed about 500% less. So how is MS improving MY computing experience?
MS claims that they won their marketshare in IE through better execution (programming). If this is true, strip IE away from Windows and give us a choice! If it is indeed better, we'll install it.
About Passport - it's a great idea in concept, but in execution I am a bit weary. I just don't trust MS, or any corporation in fact, with my personal info. It's convienent, but I don't feel that great knowing some big corporation has ALL of my personal information. MS is meeting a lot of resistance in regards to .NET My Services (i.e. Passport), in fact, Hailstorm (its code name) has been shelved for now.
I say good riddance.
-B