Interesting...still nothing about Microsoft's per computer licensing costs
for resellers? (Resellers under a Microsoft license agreement pay X dollars
for every computer they ship, irregardless of whether Windows is shipped
with that computer). Needless to say, this is IMO a seriously monopolistic
practice, since it means vendors are unlikely to ship anything other than
windows, since they have to pay for it either way.
-David Regan
-----Original Message-----
From: A mailing list for Enterprise JavaBeans development
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Ed Roman
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 11:45 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: MSFT breakup
Hey guys,
I've been reading the DOJ's recommendation to split up MSFT, and there are a
few interesting paragraphs that you may find very interesting. If the DOJ
has its way, then two of the main pro-COM+ arguments fall apart..
1) People have argued that COM+ is implicitly tied to and gains benefit from
being an integrated part of Windows 2000. According to the DOJ
recommendation below, MSFT will need to publish the API that connects
middleware to the OS. This opens the way for EJB vendors to write
application servers that are implicitly tied to and gain benefits from the
OS in a similar way to COM+.
2) People have argued COM+ is free compared to EJB, because people running
EJB on Windows 2000 are already paying for COM+ due to its bundling with
Windows 2000. In the DOJ's recommendation, MSFT must provide a way to ship
Windows without COM+, and refund the cost of COM+ to those companies that
buy Windows without COM+. This means a company purchasing an EJB system
does not have to pay COM+ when purchasing Windows 2000 for EJB.
Excerpts from the DOJ recommendation are below..
I. Microsoft shall disclose to ISVs, IHVs, and OEMs in a Timely Manner, in
whatever media Microsoft disseminates such information to its own personnel,
all APIs, Technical Information and Communications Interfaces that Microsoft
employs to enable � a Microsoft Middleware Product to interoperate with
Windows Operating System software (or Middleware distributed with such
Operating System).
II. Knowing Interference with Performance. Microsoft shall not take any
action that it
knows will interfere with or degrade the performance of any non-Microsoft
Middleware when interoperating with any Windows Operating System Product
without
notifying the supplier of such non-Microsoft Middleware in writing that
Microsoft
intends to take such action, Microsoft's reasons for taking the action, and
any ways
known to Microsoft for the supplier to avoid or reduce interference with, or
the
degrading of, the performance of the supplier�s Middleware.
III. Restriction on Binding Middleware Products to Operating System
Products.
Microsoft shall not, in any Operating System Product distributed six or more
months after the effective date of this Final Judgment, Bind any Middleware
Product to a Windows Operating System unless:
i. Microsoft also offers an otherwise identical version of that Operating
System Product in which all means of End-User Access to that Middleware
Product can readily be removed (a) by OEMs as part of standard OEM
preinstallation kits and (b) by end users using add-remove utilities readily
accessible in the initial boot process and from the Windows desktop; and
ii. When an OEM removes End-User Access to a Middleware Product from any
Personal Computer on which Windows is preinstalled, the royalty paid by that
OEM for that copy of Windows is reduced in an amount not less than the
product of the otherwise applicable royalty and the ratio of the number of
amount in bytes of binary code of (a) the Middleware Product as distributed
separately from a Windows Operating System Product to (b) the applicable
version of Windows.
The full text of the DOJ recommendation is available at
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f4600/4639.pdf
--
Ed Roman
CEO, The Middleware Company
Author, "Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans and the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise
Edition"
http://www.middleware-company.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
512-784-7840
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