Choosing a place where people appreciate honest criticism works for friendships as well. My biggest criteria for friends is that the person is cool with honesty, including telling them when they're wrong.
Interesting point about how if you never fail, you're too conservative. The same idea applies to poker. Microsoft fails constantly and people accept it, yet every Google failure means they've lost their mojo. No Wave and no Buzz means no GMail.
2. Surface Table
Both are good innovations, on which media would go over gaga, had they come from Apple/Google.
Nearly all of Microsoft's own promotional stuff is extraordinarily bad, especially in comparison to Apple.
They will announce stuff before it's ready so when it does arrive there's no buzz about it. BUT it's a necessary culture for them because of the way their business interdepends upon their partners.
While Google and Apple do also purchase technologies, they seem to produce more interesting in-house products than Microsoft. At least in my perception.
I can't recall the last time that Microsoft actually developed internally and rolled out a significant "game changer" device or software.
Same thing with Google, though they appear to buy several things that they don't fully roll out (Dodgeball, etc.). Android may have originally been an acquisition, again it feels like Google made it into a finished product far beyond what they acquired.
Microsoft appears to have bought the Kinect technology/product and done little more than change the logo on the device. The surface table also hasn't been productized into anything revolutionary or different.
For me it was the biggest failure I've seen since Netscape Navigator.
And while Windows 7 is not that bad, IMHO that's the next worst thing customers can say about your product.