Why are we obsessed with Microsoft?

Why are we so obsessed with the number 46?
That's Microsoft's Fortune 500 ranking on 2003 revenue.
The first disparity is of course Microsoft's Market Capitalisation, which would rank it third if all the shares were sold.  Why is this the case?  Is it their pile of cash?  Do we bet on the potential of Microsoft relative to other companies, or does the market talk Microsoft up, because it's in everyone's interest.
Look around your home and office.  Yes there's a Microsoft presence, but there's also a Ford, Nokia, Procter and Gamble presence which in some cases outweighs your investment in Microsoft.

Could we do without Microsoft in our lives?  Would the world be a worse place without Microsoft?
Think about it.  We'd have Apple as our operating system (actually we'd have UnixV as our operating system, if that bloody OSF hadn't sabotaged things), we'd have GUIs and a mouse without Microsoft. We'd have Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Server operating systems, and better browsers.
What have Microsoft done for us?
The only thing I can think of, is it gives us goodish integration across the office tools (which is where they make most of their money!!).  But I don't copy spreadsheets across to Word that much!  And I don't use the features of Microsoft Office beyond '97, probably.

So why all the fuss and share price around Microsoft?
The mantle has passed from IBM to Microsoft, and now possibly Google. 
Do you think the Chinese will care for this idle talk?
I carry my Nokia around with me. 
Do I care which operating system, chip, protocol and standards it uses?

And so all this Scoble/Ballmer talk.  Does it matter?  I guess if it's the third ranked company by market capitalisation then it does, but if all Microsoft is dependent on for it's high profile existence is market capitalisation, then aren't the institutional investors going to want things quietened down and remain neutral?  That's my predication, and I also think Dave Winer is on the money on this one.