Who are the world's great software companies?

In my previous post, I asked – and tried to answer – the question "What does it mean to be one of the world’s great software companies?". As part of my answer I listed some companies who I think are among the world’s great software companies, and those who aren’t. Here’s my list:

My list of the world’s great software companies

Microsoft – it defined the genre
Apple – because of its passion for design and its products
Google – because of what it does and how it does it
Oracle – an enormous success
Adobe – less sure about this one
The SAS Institute – the world’s largest privately held software company and regularly voted one of the top places to work for in the US

My list of not the world’s great software companies

Yahoo – drifting
Symantec – shoddy products
Facebook – flash in the pan

Somewhat predictably, everybody disagrees with my choices.

So my question to you is:

Who is, and who isn’t, one of the world’s great software companies?

You can give your answers on this survey:

https://www.surveymk.com///s.aspx?sm=jWKGSD0kRDRDbtCjK6L03Q_3d_3d

I’ll be giving $100 of amazon vouchers to one respondent, chosen at random.

This is the second post in a series of 3 about the world’s great
software companies. I’ll publish the results of the survey later on in the week. Make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed and don’t miss out.