"Any color you want as long as it's black"

Following up on Joseph's post, I have two points about SAS's graphics:

First, as bad as they are now, you should have seen them in the early Nineties;

Second, I think the graphics are a pretty good indication of the culture of SAS, a large, privately-held company with an effective monopoly over much of its market. SAS does good work and has an incredible record of innovation but is (in the words of some of its employees) a benevolent dictatorship. The company's attitude has always been we will decide what you need and what's a fair price for it.

I don't mean this as a slam against SAS. After almost twenty years you can put me down as a satisfied customer. It's a good company to work with and, by all accounts, a great company to work for. I don't think going public would make SAS a better company, but I do think it would make it do some things better.