As for Microsoft: Broken XBoxes; prolonging/supporting the HD disc war so they could get more time to let their digital download service mature; releasing Vista prematurely; multiple/confusing and overpriced Vista SKUs; removing XP from the market because people weren't buying Vista; Zune not supporting Microsoft's own Plays for Sure standard; DRM and Activation schemes that treat paying customers like criminals. I could go on, but I think thats enough to make my case.

It sucks. Seriously. The volume control is a reason alone not to buy this damn thing (remember old cd players, with the little black knob? It has this at the most inconvenient place. Seriously) Mind you this wouldn't be the only reason, but also take into account that other comparable laptops are much higher quality.

I have this laptop (Vista) my beast of a desktop (HP, Vista), and a x360.

The fact that yes, my 360 did flop not too long ago, the only thing I lost was time on it, since it was an extremely painless process (mind you time=money), but Xbox Live being as robust as it is, it more than makes up for it. If you want to play games, the 360 and windows are the only ways to do it, short of flash games online.

Gaming aside, since I understand not everyone uses their computers for it, I have had no problems with compatibility,and I've had Vista a few months short of a year on my laptop. I'm actually impressed with it.

Mind you, I'm also a student, so I have to use the various word processing programs (Word07, atm). It does seem like it lacks polish, on occasion, but its not nearly enough to make me want a Mac. :/

Redmond FTW!

i love my Toshiba laptop.
second laptop i've owned.
my first (HP) had numerous issues, bad CD drive, several bad batteries, a failed hard drive, and it finally died with bad RAM and a bad AC port. (best buy was great, they junked it out an d allowed me to buy my new laptop, 2x as powerful, for almost nothing. yes, i had a PSP)
the toshiba's been great for me- absolutely no problems, outside of.... windows issues!

on another note, why am i having so many issues with the gawker media empire websites after updating to latest firefox?

I voted for MS, but Toshiba's laptops are flaming piles of poo.

I can't stand Microsoft for so many reasons which have been stated by others so I won't repeat them. I had a computer built recently and the tech was smart enough to get me XP so I don't have to deal with Vista which I hear is horrible.

Toshiba on the other hand I really like. I have a 15 year old big tube TV that is so outdated but has the same pretty picture it did when new. I still remember how mad the sales guy was that I didn't get the extended warranty. It has been 15 years and I have not had one single problem.

@vatica40: Yes, Munsoned did, no matter how the above post tries to qualify it. I guess I'll launch in about how long I've been frequenting "the internet," or maybe I won't because it doesn't matter.

I don't care how long someone has been on a site. I like how you cannonize my attack as a "corporate shill" attack, when I'm addressing the following points and it was more of a "fanboy" attack anyway.

Toshiba spent no more than 6 weeks annoncing the death of a product that they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on and lost 1 billion dollars on.

Does Buran expect them to announce the death of the format the next day? Is that even good for the consumer, to abandon a product consumers bought as soon as rough waters start? Should they have immediately called it quits, leaving 1 million HD DVD adopters "holding the bag," or should they have spent the timre required to see what they could do post-WB leaving the fold? Leaving 1 million consumers high and dry without considering options doesn't seem very consumer-friendly.

They're a bad company for spending 6 weeks calculating their options for something that was nearly a decade in development and almost 2 years in production?

And then they talk about consumer choice? Toshiba is a bad company for providing choice and competition in the marketplace? Uhh....

Wow.

@vatica40: No, my real point is that he obviously has no idea how long Buran has been on this site, and how often she contributes to threads (I would guess offhand that she contributes on a nearly-daily basis) to make such a stupid "corporate shill" attack against her. I personally like having new people on this site--it certainly keeps things fresh. Anyone that's been on this site for more than a few weeks would probably notice that Buran is not a corporate shill.

Because Toshiba markets the majority of their products in America and they have a a physical presence in it

I realize you need to throw in some neutral seeds to fill stuff out, but thats a lame reason to include Toshiba. Really lame. It shouldn't even be taken into account. They invested in something, why shouldn't they try with every breath to get money out of it? As a matter of fact, I think giving up -sooner- would have made them a more irresponsible company.

And sure, nukes, Russians, whatever... I don't see Mitsubishi or Volkswagon topping off any lists.

Microsoft takes the cake just because they're discontinuing XP sales in June.

@Munsoned: Did you just really try to counter him with a version of "his post count is higher than yours, this board is for cool kids only"? Really? Don't make this site one of 'those' sites. The stars are bad enough.

Toshiba=loser in DVD war but wasn't half-assing it, Blu-ray switch for HD-DVD is [seemingly] less scary and more doable than going Mac or Linux. I almost feel bad for them this year [almost]. Also, Not MIcrosoft.

@PunditGuy: Thanks, I'll definitely check it out.

Wait.. isn't Toshiba a foreign company?

How does that qualify to be Worst Company in America?

Toshiba - created a losing format.

Microsoft - created an operating system that is inferior to their own, "outdated" operating system.
They released a console that they have publicly stated will not support the blu-ray standard, only the outmoded HD-DVD standard. In addition, this console has major design flaws such as RROD. To make this worse, the unit costs in the 300-400 dollar range, is hard to get repaired and can even be DoA.

I'm really surprised that more people haven't switched to mac.

I had to send the laptop in about 4 times for repairs. The first time was for a really loose monitor that would fall over if you even so much as breathed on it.Then the 2nd and 3rd times were for a failed hard drive.

Toshiba thought it would be nice to just ship the laptop back with the failed drive still in there, so when I got the laptop back, I pretty much sent it right back to them.

The 4th time was for several dead pixels on the screen, and the monitoring coming loose again. I wasn't constantly opening and closing the laptop either. It was just coming loose from normal wear.

As for Microsoft, I've have one 360 that red ringed, but that was replaced with one that worked, so at least their warranty works.

@Blinkman: Calling Buran "some idiot Bluballs fanboy"? Are you serious? You haven't been here long have you? From the look of your profile, apparently not. You, sir, are a douchebag.

Anyway,

@jeremybwilson:

You don't need Windows Media Center. Check out TVersity. Streams to 360s and other devices as well.

@ ParadeDC: I don't own a Mac, never have, but thanks...

Question: Do you kiss your mother with those lips?

@jeremybwilson

You don't need Windows Media Center.

[tversity.com]

I stream to my 360, my iPod Touch and my MythTV box without DRM headaches.

@NightSteel: I voted toshiba and I have used a computer for many other things.

Let me just shill out.

My friend bought a 360 that needed repair and microsoft sent him a box to mail it to them. After a week he got a brand new Xbox 360 sent to him.

I have a zune and it works fine for me. and... ubuntu sux. :) cya!

I bought a Toshiba 3.1 megapixel high end camera a few years ago. Took great daylight pics but when taking a pic at night or needing the built in flash the pic would always be out of focus. It seems that the camera used light from the subject to auto-focus and there was none. Toshiba's quick-fix for this was to use a flashlight on the subject so the camera could focus before setting off the flash and taking the pic. I'd love to smack the engineer, up side the head, who designed this sucky camera. I won'r buy any Toshiba product now.

Toshiba, I never really liked their products... I had a TV, and the bloody crapped out on me...

Myself, I purchased both because the HD player was nearly free after all the movies I got, most of which I would've bought anyway. Those HD DVDs didn't give me a rootkit either!

Wow.

My Xbox 360 console won't see/share files with my two Windows XP (SP2) machines. No way in hell I'm paying money for Windows Media Center. Knock on wood, I haven't yet experienced the RRoD on my Costco-purchased Xbox 360. $500 in upgrade parts to make my primary gaming box (which I thought was smoking-fast for my needs already) Vista compatible. Meh!

I've got a new, but far from top-of-the-line laptop that runs Vista with all the features with no problem.

I still voted for Microsoft.

I think you don't give a shit about the feelings of other people who haven't done anything wrong, and disagreeing with you is not doing something wrong.

Yes, I think they should have acted sooner. They had plenty of time to see the writing on the wall and didn't give a shit about the public.

I'm not going to argue with you anymore on this. You care more about "winning" by putting down others than you do about having a civil discussion.

The "GSO" statement at the end of your post was most inappropriate. Grow up.

Anyway, they're both faceless corporations, but I'd support Toshiba over Sony any day of the week, and I'm a PS3 owner. As far as the Russia/Japan/US incident, I'm going to look into the specifics of that incident further, but I'm of the opinion that an independent company owes nothing to a foreign government. Without that technology, many Russian lives were put at jeopardy! Now, US lives are in jeopardy! Whose lives are worth more!?

Exhibit A: Vista.

The prosecution rests.

Amen, brother.

Aside from hawking their latest steaming pile of crap known as Vista, I have another reason for hating Microsoft: buying up all my favorite game developers and ruining my favorite game IPs. I was pissed off when they bought FASA Corporation (ruining the Shadowrun IP in video game format and eventually killing off MechWarrior). I was very pissed off when they bought out Bungie (thus killing the Myth series, one of my favorite RTS IPs ever, now that Bungie no longer owns the IP).

Now they want to buy Yahoo, buy a stake in Facebook... I even found an article amusingly declaring that "Microsoft Buys Evil From Satan". Whenever Microsoft sees money in a niche they haven't dominated yet, their knee-jerk reaction is to simply buy the company that currently holds the leader spot. It may make good business sense, in truth, but that's what makes Microsoft the company we love to hate.

Err, they graciously kept their OS open to malicious hacks and viruses to generously allow Norton to become a $billion-company?
No, wait. That doesn't work either.

Okay: they own Bungie.
No, wait. Bungie's leaving them in a righteous huff.

Zune!
No, wait. That really doesn't work.

Damn it.
DAMN it.
Damn it!

(cough) As you were.

In a broader sense this why the rest of your comment was drivel, because the whole reason of regulating a market with legislation is because private companies are too stupid and/or short sighted to take anything into consideration other than their own profit, which hurts the larger economy. Luckily Toshiba bowed out, as they very well should have (too bad for you HD-DVD fanboys, it was an inferior product), but if they hadn't, then some extra-market regulatory force should have come in to stop them, lest the entire HD market suffer for the greed of one small group. This is why government regulated economies thrive (the EU, China, India, and the US before that piece of shit Reagan), and why economies that don't, fall into decay (such as the US now, and any third world country on the planet).

The rest of your comment just made no sense, and sounded like the same libertarian shite that I hear spewed out every morning by the crazy homeless guy at the train station, the one who keeps trying to eat his own face.

Isn't flaming fun? :)

What I take offense at is being called an idiot, a retard (that's about as far from the truth as you can get) and similar derogatory terms just for having an opinion and daring to make a nomination.

I think some of the other nominations are silly (my opinion, mind) but I don't insult others for making the nominations. It's uncalled for.

The arguments used in nominating each of these companies are a little flawed.

Toshiba lost the HD optical format war, but placing all the blame on the loser and none on the victor is revisionist at best. Sony and Toshiba should have worked it all out together long before products hit the market. It's also notable that the HD-DVD format was complete on delivery while Blu-Ray now has multiple, incompatible formats.

The defective XBOX 360 console comment definitely sticks, but 'very hard for customers to get warranty repairs'? I'm personally grateful that the warranty was extended to 3 years. Especially since my system went t.u. after a year. The repair process was fairly painless though, and I had a working system within a month.

Vista is available in 4 flavors (not counting retail vs oem vs upgrade vs full). You don't need a 'super-fancy' computer to run any of them, though something built within the past two years will certainly do a better job than a machine built with Windows XP in mind.

But Toshiba was a bad company for inhibiting one brand to win? Huh? So do you want choice, or do you want it made for you? WB announced they were Blu exclusive on Jan 4th. Toshiba announced the death of HD DVD on Feb 19th. That's what, 6 weeks? Atonement was the last HDDVD disc I can recall being released, and that was March 18th, one month after the announcement that Toshiba would discontinue the format.

Toshiba provided what they believed would be best for them and their relationship with consumers. Sony/Matsushita did their format. One won, and it was less than 2 years (April 06 and June 06) that the war was decided and over.

So, how did Toshiba keep fighting when they lost? I don't understand. Maybe in your brain it makes sense, but if you look at the dates, everything seems reasonable. 6 weeks to announce the death of the format, and another 1 month until the last disc was released? Is that unreasonable for a giant company? Formerly exclusive HD discs are already getting street dates, like Batman Begins.

So, how do you argue your "opinion" again? Lewl GSO.

Wherever did you get government intervention from my nomination!?

MS trying to force people into using Vista is really the last straw. If they succeed on pushing XP out of use I will go back to using Mac.

Despite the flop that was HD DVD, Toshiba still makes some of the most reliable electronics on the market while still being affordable. I tell customers all the time "Same high quality standards as the top of the line, but without paying more for the name".

And umm...I guess that means Vista isn't going to get any better because all R&D will be reserved for Windows 7. Gee thanks Microsoft for making people buy a product even its own company doesn't stand behind.

I am sick of the Microsoft merry-go-round of operating systems and I am not playing anymore. We didn't need a whole new rickety operating system for pretty Aero icons. Sell that crap as a add-on package and leave the rest of us the hell alone. When the time comes when I can no longer use XP, I am buying a MAC. I never had an interest in MACs until Vista. But Microsoft can only anal probe a consumer for so long. Enough is enough.

Microsoft is king of the pointless upgrades in order to turn a buck. But forcing a substandard product on people for a buck...well, they have now gone too far.

Microsoft can kiss my ass.

O comeon. I'm not a MS fanboy by any means, but who hasn't been in the midst of the BS HD-DVD stuff? I wouldn't buy Xbox360 if you gave me the cash for one. You guys have your Halo, I'll keep my PC games.

but have you SEEN Vista? The only reason I can tolerate it at all is because of Lifehacker.

AND THAT'S HOW YOU CROSS-SELL!

MS has their faults as well but they know when to quit and when to buy out.

When Hitler envisioned his inexpensive reliable "people's car", he thought that it would enable Germans to travel and enjoy a higher standard of living than they had in the past, especially after the inter-war years when morale was poor.

Instead, not a single KdF-Wagen was distributed under the coupon-book savings scheme ... but the Beetle, as it was later known, became a well-loved icon of the "hippie age".

In the United States. Not in Germany.

Whodathunkit?

But that's the funny way the world works.

(this is NOT a Godwin attempt; please do not take it as one)

Screw you Toshiba.

reply to Steaming Pile...

My point is that the Japanese were on OUR SIDE during the cold war and this company (toshiba) sold us out.

Yes, Toyota made trucks for the Japanese army. They're a Japanese company! Don't you see the difference? It's the difference between fighting a war on the wrong side, losing and reconcilement and selling out your allies.

"Inhibiting the high def war" my ass. If they wanted to nominate Toshiba for increased support of Nuclear power, that would be one thing, but man, the reasoning that Buran said is just retarded. Probably some idiot Bluballs fanboy.

Toshiba. Illegally sold highly sophisticated machine tools to the Soviets during the cold war that were used to mill quieter ballistic missile submarine propellers.

I gripe a LOT about Microsoft but they never contributed to helping me become a vapor cloud...

I'm a longtime user of Microsoft's stuff, and there have been good times (XP) and bad (ME). My 360 has been running just fine since 3 months after launch, so no complaints from me in that department -- and Xbox Live is vastly superior to the competition.

Don't get me wrong, they've definitely got problems (and perhaps a touch of evil). I just don't think they're much worse than any other large corporation.

Microsoft definitely deserves to win this round, but I'm not sure they'll survive the second. I'd pick any credit card company over MS.

I have a toshiba laptop with windows on it.

I'm so confused.

MS's proprietary formats and poor OS are why I voted.

More people use PCs than hi-def equipment.

XP is wonderful when compared to Vista's clunky, confusing interface.

The problme with Toshiba is that never really got behind HD DVD. The put HD DVD on the market and seemed to adopt an attitude of "If we build, they will come".

HD DVD could have won the format war if Toshiba had promoted it better and been quicker about integrating it with the Xbox 360. Instead they seemed content to let the format die a quick but painful death.