Five memorable Microsoft legacies in computer culture

Providing ubiquitous desktop software for decades, Microsoft has come in for jibes, mockery and even loathing even as it has helped millions of people get things done.

Every design decision is felt around the world for better or worse — often staying with people for years as a fond memory or a meme.

Here are a few of the ways Microsoft has marked computing culture:

Blue screen of death

A fixture since the very first versions of Windows — if mercifully much rarer these days — the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD, is displayed when Microsoft’s operating…