Yesterday I went through part 1 of a list of ten things I think Microsoft has done right. Some of these are major, industry- or world-changing items. Others are smaller but overlooked contributions that deserve to be recognized. All of it is my opinion; there’s no scientific method in play.

Yesterday’s list included

1. Driving down the cost of computer systems.
2. Standardization.
3. Universal plug-and-play.
4. The feature-rich stability of the Office suite.
5. It’s mission to change the world through technology.

See yesterday’s post for the details.

Here are the rest of the items on my list.

6. Inventing the idea of mass-market paid software.

Famously, the idea that people should pay for software effectively started with a letter Bill Gates wrote to the Homebrew Computing Club in 1976. (Click that link for the backstory, or this one to read the letter.)

It set off a bit of an uproar, to say the least. Still, it set the idea that software took work, and that intellectual property was real work that should be paid for.

Of course, there are those who agree not to seek monetary compensation from users, the core Linux team being the most prominent example. And there were those who promulgated the try-it-and-pay-if-you-like-it ShareWare model; I was proud to be associated with a couple of the ShareWare pioneers. But Bill’s point was that the choice should be up to the creators, not the users.

I pay for the music I listen to. I pay for the software I use. (I also have a certain amount of free music and software where the creators have chosen to make it available without charge.)

Micro-soft added an immense amount to the conversation when Bill said, it’s not cool to steal stuff. Micro-soft of course also gained serious revenue… though they lost the hyphen in their name.

More importantly, the idea of pay-for-software jumpstarted the software industry.

7. DHTML, the foundation of today’s web apps.

Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is what allows today’s rich browser apps, from Google Docs to the annoying WordPress editor in which I’m writing this post to Google and Bing maps and Bing’s image search.

Web pages used to be static. Filling in a form was pretty much the highlight of the page. But in the late 1990s, Microsoft and Netscape were engaged in a war over who could build the more useful browser. Both had the concept of a more flexible system, but it was Microsoft’s version that won out. People who worked on the team tell me it was technically better, though the Department of Justice thought there were other reasons IE beat Netscape. Whatever the story, DHTML became the standard that enables today’s terrific and interactive “cloud” apps.

8. Responses to 9/11, Katrina, and Bosnian refugees.

Lots of companies helped out in these crises, and few of them, Microsoft included, tried to earn publicity points for their work. That’s to the credit of all of them.

They should all be recognized. But since I’m talking about and most familiar with Microsoft’s responses here, I want to recognize Microsoft for their work.

For the record, they helped businesses get back on line quickly after 9/11, they built a system to track and reunite the scattered refugees of Katrina (no, not the New Orleans Saints, the real refugees), and they created a vast database and in-the-field to identify and reunite families fleeing Bosnia, few of whom carried ID or even escaped together. All of these were employees-on-their-own we-need-to-do-this initiatives, not corporate suggestions.

9. Trying to help presenters improve.

Few realize the contributions made by designers Nancy Duarte and Julie Terberg to improving the actual presentations people build using PowerPoint.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool, but it also makes it easy for lazy presenters to develop really, really bad slides. Duarte and Terberg have created templates that can help — and I hope their work will stimulate presenters to get off their duff and scrap the bullet points. If you are a presenter, please, please click on those links, read them, and then track down the PPT work they point to. (I also salute Garr Reynolds and Cliff Atkinson for their work, but it wasn’t done within Microsoft and thus doesn’t fit this post.)

I don’t think it’s PowerPoint’s fault for all the horrid presentations we sit through… though I do wish PowerPoint didn’t make bullet points the default slide after the title page. Duarte and Terberg have created templates that can really help even bad presenters give bearable presentations — just don’t muck them up with bullet points! (In other words, if you want slide notes so you’ll remember what you intended to say, write them on 3×5 note cards rather than on the screen.)

10. Encouraging employee charitable donations.

Microsoft matches dollar for dollar up to $12,000/year (in the US; varies in other countries, I think) in employee charitable donations. Nowadays, most high-tech companies do this, but Microsoft was a leader in the 80s and 90s. They also match the hours employees donate with money, where I think they were the first big company to do this.

Each year, Microsoft has one of the largest percentages of employees — maybe the largest — who donate and ask Microsoft to match. That’s not visible in a big way outside Microsoft, except to the foundation community, because Microsoft doesn’t publicize it to the general public.

But those contributions make a huge difference in the lives of others. Most Microsoft employees understand this, and recognize that they’re in a somewhat privileged position — especially in this economy.

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Later this week, the opposite side of this post: ten opportunities Microsoft had in its hands… and dropped.