This dog was astounded, but not really surprised I must confess, to read a month or so back that Microsoft was actively booed at the recent 'Cool Site of the Year' Web awards in New York. In fact, by all reports it became something of a game to boo every time the word Microsoft was mentioned. That took me straight back to my puppy days at the pantomime where we all delighted in booing the villain whenever he appeared.

That pretty much sums up Microsoft's position in the PC world today - the villain we all love to hate. And, like the villain at the panto, there's probably a good reason for that. Microsoft does dominate the industry and that instinctively makes most people - this dog included - a little nervous. Like any successful company, Microsoft is, at heart, about making life better for its shareholders first and for everyone else second. Which is admirable, but does have the potential for some genuine concern.

Microsoft dominates the Operating System market with Windows in all its flavours and the mainstream business software market with its Office suite. It makes the most widely-used products in market niches as diverse as programming languages (Visual Basic) and multimedia encyclopedias (Encarta). It even holds down first place in the Macintosh software market. And now it's actively pursuing the Internet market - from browser to authoring tool to web server.

It's pretty easy to see why people get nervous - Microsoft's domination or potential domination is the single largest issue in the PC world today, by most accounts.

Now let's turn the clock back - say six or seven years. It's not hard to find the largest issue then, either, at least from the user's perspective. Incompatibility is the key problem.

Leading word processor WordPerfect has a huge following, as does spreadsheet Lotus 123. But each must be learnt and used individually - they share nothing in common. In fact, Lotus will soon sue Borland for successfully emulating its menuing system. Meanwhile, Borland is also shipping the most successful database product - Paradox - and is about to acquire its only major competitor in Ashton-Tate. Neither of these database products operate in even vaguely similar manner. Not that it matters too much, as both are so arcane to use that they have remained the domain of developers and enthusiasts.

Programming is a nightmare job, with DOS providing little if anything in the way of programmer support. Some limited graphical user interfaces are appearing, but they're all different and hellishly difficult to develop. All PC users - and most developers - look enviously at the Macintosh, where graphics are a way of life and developers are told by Apple they must do things a certain way (and, in return, get to use a vast array of standard routines which simplify the basics).

If, then, someone had told the PC users and developers of the world that, within a few short years, there would be standards, there would be interoperability, there would be a graphical user interface accepted by virtually all PC users they would have been howled down as foolish. Certainly, the fellow who walked along with the solution would have been praised to the skies by all and sundry. Or so you'd think.

But a fellow did amble by with a solution. His name was Bill and he and his company managed, part by technical excellence, part by marketing and part simply by making it possible to develop easily, to single-handedly do what no Standards Committee could ever have achieved. In the process, he took the PC from an annoying tool of business to a genuine tool for all.

Ironically, if it weren't for Windows, the Internet and the Web wouldn't be the white-hot hit they are today. Simply because they would be seen by only a fraction of the users - the rest wouldn't be ready to take the jump into the incompatible, expensive world of the home computer.

So next time you get the urge to boo the Microsoft villain, just remember that, even though he may well be tying the heroine to the railroad tracks, he's got at least some right to sympathy.

He invented the railroad.