M$ is dead, nobody fears them anymore, their products are no longer required, for every M$ product there are many competing products that work as well or better.
Like saying IE is the best browser because it has 60% of market share without saying it had 90% a year before.
Nobody uses it anymore and nobody cares.
That's the real issue.
No, it isn't. Toyota's products are not required, since they have many competitors for each. That doesn't mean that they can't make money, only that they're not a(n effective) monopoly.
It's not entirely dissimilar to a family that refuses to take a loved one off life support now that I think about.
I'm sure there are plenty of organizations that would love to move away from Microsoft, but its just reality that they can't. They are too invested in it. It would take too much money, too much time and too much political will to make a change. It's not their fault, its not even Microsoft's doing, other than being in the right place (on commodity PCs) at the right time (the '90s.) It's just the way it is.
C#? I'd much rather use C# over java.
Office? What's the alternative there? Open Office? Come on Open Office is far buggier, less user friendly, less productive, and has far less features. Google Docs? Missing tons of features, not to mention it's utterly useless when I don't have a network connection.
Visual Studio? Again nothing comes close to the features, speed, and stability. Eclipse is the nearest competitor imo - and it's still trailing behind a long ways.
Conversely there are practical, real gains to be had by using anything other that Microsoft products, but getting a large company to make any change before it is absolutely necessary is almost impossible, as current events demonstrate.
What is missing is a catalyst, something of an "energy crisis" of software, which will put this to rest.
M$ (Microsoft): used to emphasize the allegation that Microsoft has business practices that focus on making money rather than producing good products or looking after the end user's needs and interests. Microsoft was convicted under United States anti-trust law of taking unfair advantage of its monopoly position. Also criticized for taking advantage of loyal customers and upgrading products annually for an expensive price, thus "shafting" the people who bought last year's products.
I don't see anything wrong with using M$ to imply all of the above in one simple and worldwide recognizable satiric misspelling.
See also, satire
If you'd like to draw attention to Microsoft's illegal behavavior in the market, you have to explicitly state it, a dollar sign won't be enough for most people, who think you might simply be poor and envious.
I would, however content that a company which is focusing on something other than making money for its shareholders is dishonest, as that is what is expected of a for-profit business.