Bob: If I remember correctly a part of the American auto buyers change from "big iron built in America" to Japanese vehicles was a tariff loophole allowed a lower tariff rate for the import of Asian pickup trucks without a bed (sorry I don't know the European name for it). The pickup bed was (and is) built in the USA and attached in the USA.
Thus, government regulations offered the manufacturer a way to produce a more competitively priced product for the general public. In an ideal business world Microsoft would not have taken the path which has resulted in their conviction on illegal business practices and their resulting (proven) monopolistic business operations. It will be very interesting to see what actions, or lack of same, the EU in Brussels takes this spring when they finally start making decisions on the pending cases against Microsoft. In the past the options went from nothing happening all the way to the stopping of a merger of two American-based multi-national operating publicly traded companies. John Oram Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 10:57:46 -0700 From: Bob George <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: QUIT bashing MS!!! Windows is a great OS "John Oram" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [...] > For Microsoft to refuse to recognize these fundamental problems is a lot > like the 1950's and 1960's American automotive industry when they > continued to not address the publics concerns about building safer > products. Although I'm in agreement that "something" must be done about Microsoft, I do hope that this analogy is absolutely dead-on. Consumers finally got tired of paying a premium for something with mediocre performance and reliability, and suddenly alternatives (imports) became commonplace on American roads. We may be at the point where alternative OSen fit certain niches, much as the Honda Civic and VWs did with cash-poor students, and those quirky BMW 2002s did with sporting types. I like to think that the change will come not from any government driven effort, but from a fundamental change in consumer choices. Wouldn't it be great if the answer to "what OS should I use?" became "it depends on what you want to do with it."? Windows might become the family-oriented sedan, accomodating kids and groceries and basically OK for getting from A to B. Users would secretly lust after the svelte sports OS, lacking some of the cushy comfort and chrome, but offering better performance. Given a choice between seeing Microsoft "punished" by the government, and seeing them drop out of public consciousness, I'd just as soon see them suffer the fate of Ashton-Tate and the myriad of others who thought they'd sewn it all up. I don't like Microsoft, but the government has suddenly become WAY more of a concern to me, even though they're the "good guys." - Bob (Nissan Motors & Linux fan) ---------- To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
