At 9:21 PM -0500 6/10/00, William H. Geiger III wrote:
>
>This is just plain crap. M$ was spending $200M/yr on IE development. Good
>GOD there are OS's out there (and far better than Winblows) who's entire
>development cost were not $200M. M$ was not interested in competing in the
>WebBrowser market place it was trying to buy it lock stock and barrel
>(along with the rest of the Internet).
If there are better OSes out there, and I'm not disputing that, then
customers are free to use them. Many do.
>
>Micky$loth exhibited the same tactics with IE that they have in every
>market they enter:
>
>Someone outside of M$ comes up with an original concept (something I have
>yet to see come out of M$)
>
>M$ realizes that they have missed the boat yet again.
>
>M$ tries to but the product.
So? In a free country they can do as they wish with their resources.
However, I've seen a different "strategy" for them, one which has
worked remarkably well, and for which I give them credit:
* MS introduces Version 1 of a product (Windows, Word, PowerPoint,
etc.). Various problems/limitations.
* MS sticks with it, and introduces Version 2. Still some problems or
cruftiness.
* While other companies have abandoned their efforts due to product
limitations, MS sticks in for Version 3. Which mostly fixes all
problems.
I've seen this "stick-to-it-ittivenss" many times. I give them
credit. The market apparently does as well.
Those who wanted to use Samna Word instead of Word were free to do
so. Those who wanted to use More instead of PowerPoint were free to
do so.
>
>
>-- Release "undocumented" OS API's documentation only to it's internal app
>developers.
Just as Intel does with undocumented processor features. Just as Ford
does to internal design groups. So? It's their property and they can
release info as they wish.
>
>-- Use it's monopoly with hardware vendors to prevent competition's
>product from being pre-installed on new equipment.
Oh? You mean that if Tim's Computer Company buys some motherboards
and power supplies and processors and such that his company is
"prevented" from selling Linux or Plan 9 or whatever on it? How does
Microsoft enforce this--guns?
On the other hand, if you mean that a large company like Gateway
signs "exclusivity" deals, such is the nature of business. A Ford
dealership may not be able to sell Chryslers. So?
And, from a practical point of view, since Windows 98 retails in
stores for not very much money (a few hundred or less), the licensing
fees Gateway or Dell pays to MS to put Windows 98 or whatever on
machines is probably not great.
As for Explorer vs. AOL's Navigator, this is a nit. Both are widely
and easily available. Various of these companies attempt to place
their products in the "path of least resistance," where
unsophisticated customers will use their products and not think about
alternatives. No different from Sears accepting a deal from Hoover
Vaccuums to prominently feature Hoover vaccums. Capitalism, private
property, freedom to contract, etc.
>
>-- Use the SPAA (the M$ Brown Shirts) to extort corporations &
>universities to run M$ only shops
"Extort"? "Brown Shirts"?
You have a warped view of what it is to live in a free society.
It shows the pointlessness of the Cypherpunks list when a long-time
subscriber like William Geiger can fall for the socialist/communalist
notion that Microsoft must be forced by men with guns to deal with
its property the way the men with guns want it to.
>
>
>I don't like anti-trust actions. I think that there were better remedies
>for dealing with M$. But let's face it folks anyone that can claim that
>Microsoft is interested in competition in a free market place is either a
>fool or a liar.
Since you are then calling me a fool or a liar, I'll return the
favor. It is shameful that you are on the Cypherpunks list.
People like you need to be stopped from imposing by force your views.
--Tim May
--
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
