Many people hate Microsoft, I don't. While I love free software I also love the quality of much of what Microsoft has designed. Yes, there are many applications that have holes or lack features, and sometimes its just too expensive. But Microsoft, helmed by Bill Gates, has led the way on many fronts of computing. So I'm going to recommend Microsoft's website. Here are a few of Microsoft's noticeable accomplishments:

• Windows Operating System - The vast majority of computers available on the market today and those in our homes and businesses run some version of the Windows Operating System. The most recent release for the desktop is Windows Vista, while the most widely deployed is Windows XP. For server's the latest release is Windows Server 2003 R2, with the much anticipated Windows Longhorn Server coming out sometime later this year.
• Visual Studio - A suite of tools that allows for the visual design of applications. In the past (and to this day) much coding of applications took place by writing lines of code by hand. With Visual Studio it became possible to write large portions of the required code by simply dragging and dropping controls. While code still has to be written, it has significantly sped up the process to have tools like Visual Studio and its free little sibling such as Visual Web Designer Express.
• .NET Framework - Allows for the rapid development of applications through a large number of shared libraries that greatly reduces the amount of code a developer has to write to create a finished application.
• Microsoft Office - While I personally don't use Microsoft Office anymore (I use OpenOffice instead) that doesn't negate that Microsoft Office is the most widely used and one of the best office suites available and that any suite that even wants to compare has to be compatible with Microsoft Office - the de facto standard.
• Age of Empires - Known for bringing the much loved (not by me) real-time strategy game series Age of Empires.
• XBOX - Only a few years ago Microsoft went from a nobody in the console gaming industry to being one of the main contenders. They had a revolutionary success on their hands with the release of the game Halo, which has since had a sequel and I believe is being made into a movie.

    One cannot even begin to ennumerate all of Microsoft's accomplishment. But beyond the vast scope of applications they have developed is several facets of their organization:

• Exhaustive documentation. Their are hundreds of thousands of pages on Microsoft's websites chronicling every detail of how to use their software applications.
• Exhaustive support. Microsoft has written thousands of pages detailing how to utilize specific programs, but also generic guidelines for accomplishing important tasks (e.g. securing your network).
• Excellent service. For $250 an incident you can get great corporate support for issues relating to Microsoft equipment. No matter how long it takes them to resolve the issue - its $250.