Hey, I’ll be the first to admit that Microsoft is (or was?) not a very good company to “partner” with in business. But companies are in business to make money for their shareholders, not to please public opinion polls. Certainly during the ’90s and early ’00s, Microsoft full leveraged — well, over-leveraged — its monopolies in operating systems and productivity applications maximize shareholder value. But that was then, and this is now.

Sure Microsoft continues to make bucketloads of money from these monopolies, but so what? When is the last time that an OS actually added value to your computing experience? Yeah, the search might get better and the UI prettier, but that’s mostly window dressing (pun not intended). OSs and productivity applications have matured to the point were they have become utilities that enable your web, gaming, communications or whatever experience. They are no longer part of the value layer.

And in the current, ever-changing world of technology, Microsoft’s utilities have not translated into success in the important markets of the future. Microsoft is a distant third in search/portals to Google and Yahoo!, has a very, very small share of the mobile handset market and has sold 1/4 the number of current-generation game consoles that Sony has.

But in my opinion, Microsoft is the most innovative large company in the world. Take blogging for example. Microsoft clearly understands that markets are now conversations, and has encouraged its employees to enter that conversation. In fact, they’ve probably got more employee bloggers than any company in the world, and for sure the most well-know corporate blogger in Robert Scoble.

And how about Channel 9? Wow! Can you imagine any other company close to their size doing something like that? Hey, let’s have a bunch of geeks run around with store-bought video cameras interviewing product groups within our company, and have them post it on the web. Where’s Google’s or Yahoo!’s Channel 9? Blogging and Channel 9 were/are huge risks to take and endorse. Props for both of those efforts.

And how about Windows Media Center? Its about as close to a successful “convergence” product as has ever been released. And the Tablet PC? Microsoft is the only company driving this form factor… and continues to stay committed to it even with somewhat lackluster sales. Buy one or a Pocket PC and you’ll understand that this is the future of a large part of computing. And how about MSN Spaces, their Desktop search and their new mapping service? They still haven’t figured out the internet secret sauce yet, but they’re giving it a try. Xbox 360? Making it much more than just a game console is certainly risky. Xbox Live? RSS feeds in Halo 2… yadda, yadda, yadda. Tech props for these efforts.

When you are a ship the size of the Titanic, it’s clearly pretty difficult to steer a company towards innovation and change, but compare Microsoft to Sony or HP or GM or any number of large, mega companies. I’d say they’re doing more to innovate and stay current than most companies — large or small.

Bashing Microsoft for its past transgressions, however large they were, is really getting tired and old. I’m not saying that Microsoft has become some sort of egalitarian business paradigm (or that you should trust them), but how about giving Microsoft some mad props that they clearly deserve?