Being passionate about developer tools

Nick pointed out yet another "VS vs. BDS" thread on Joel on Software.  For some reason, I find these "what programming tool should I use?" threads interesting reading.  It's almost like asking, "Hey, I'm looking for a new religion and I'm considering Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Which is best? " Anyway, having worked on the development teams for Borland Delphi/C++Builder as well as MS Visual C++, I think I have some reasonably informed opinions on the topic of Windows dev tools.  As interesting as the conversation is, though, I'm sometimes surprised at some of the misconceptions folks have about developer tools and the people who make them.  For example, this quote kinda got my goat:

"There's really not much to hold on to and be passionate about when it comes to Microsoft products. Microsoft products, by nature of their corporate culture, which comes all the way from Steve Ballmer/Bill Gates down to the developers, are very uninspiring, boring and lacking style."

It's fun to beat up on the big guy, but to say that Microsoft employees are not deeply passionate about what they do has no basis in reality.  I've worked at several software companies in my career, and Microsoft employees are among the most passionate about what they do.  Now, if you're personally bored and uninspired by Microsoft products, that's an opinion that you have every right to hold, and I hope we can change your mind over time.  However, to say that you're not inspired by Microsoft products so therefore people at Microsoft lack passion for their work is not a logical argument.  I'm personally not passionate about stock car racing, but I recognize that other people are, notably those that do it for a living.

Regarding our leaders, I personally am inspired to work for people like Bill and Steve.  And, yes, Bill is indeed a low-key guy, and while Steve gets accused of many things, being boring or lacking style isn't usually among them.  :)

At any rate, it's hard to get passionate about the market leader; I understand that.  People love an underdog, and It's much easier to get charged up about some upstart company with a cool, little technology.  Still, I guarantee you that everyone in Building 41 is on a mission to build tools that delight software developers.  Is there something you think would could do better that would make you more passionate about Visual C++?