How nice of you to rig this so that if we don't hit the group reply
key, any critiques of your post go directly to you and not the group.
What an effective strategy to muzzle those who disagree with you...
Well some of us are wise to that ploy! I have reset the headers!
> So Netscape wanted $21,250 up front and Microsoft was willing to give
> him something for free and wait to make their profits on future sales
> to his customers. I don't understand what it is that you find
> distasteful. Both companies did a major piece of development up
Attempts to crush those who started the market, for one. I have
heard of Big Bully MS driving people out of business, infringing on
patents, etc. They even infringed on my browser patent, after telling me
they wanted to talk. And then canceling all the meetings, telling their
staff anyone to talked with us would be disciplined!
With their revenues, MS does not have to make an immediate profit on
any product, like NS does. They can afford to dump (legal term,)
products into a market to drive their competition out of business, and
later jack up the price to make up for it.
> Is there supposed to be something wrong with giving breaks on one
> product to encourage use of another? This is a cornerstone of
> American business; the standard B-school example is George Gillette
> discounting or giving away razors to build up the sale of blades.
Done in moderation, that is one thing. But done to the point of
losing money, of using financial strength to dominate a new market, that
is unfair.
> I think that the knee-jerk reaction against Microsoft that permeates
> much of the web developer literature is extremely unfortunate. In my
I think it is well deserved. I have read about companies that were
"blessed" by MS for a while, invited to participate in trade shows with
them, just long enough for MS to learn how their products worked, and
develop similar products of their own. Then BAM! That little company
can't compete with MS steam roller marketing, and they go out of business.
This story was told in the newspapers and trade journals. It happens over
and over. It is a way of destroying creative people.
> experience developing web sites (since '94), IE4 is *vastly* superior
> to NS4; I can't think of a single example where I've found it easier
> to do something for NS than it was for IE. It seems to me that
> prejudice against Microsoft is one of the major factors keeping the
> NS browser from joining Mosaic in the software graveyard.
Baloney!
MS, when they entered the market, specifically ADVERTISED for people
who knew the weaknesses of Nestacape. I got calls from agents asking me
very clearly and specifically, if I could help generate HTML code that
would make pages viewed in Netscape look bad!
I think their acts are Despicable!
There is fair competition, and unfair competition. Judging from what
I saw with Digital Research's multitasking operating system, Netscape, and
my own dealings with MS, Billy does not know how to compete fair and
square, nor how to accept that others can have ideas that are better than
his. He wants to be IT, and wants to be credited for having invented
everything. He stole the idea of Windows from Steve Jobs, and Steve stoll
the idea from Xerox. (Stoll enough that Apple sued MS.) If Bully Billy's
mother had not been on the same board of directors of some charity as a
high up IBM person was, Billy would probably never have gotten the chance.
He won through connections. Having what I think an inferior product, he
does not seem to be willing to compete on the basis of merit, but seeks
non-competitive advantages wherever he can.
If I could afford the lawyers, I would be in court against MS right
now! But even when that compression company won their suit against MS,
they had to sue them again just to try to collect their award! And ended
up settling for half of it and selling out part of their company to MS. I
have neither the financial resources, nor the energy to fight that kind of
unfair grind-them-down battle that the contingency lawyers predicted.
(Even they wanted us to fund their expenses to the tune of more that we
could afford.)
I like that quote in the news, with BG asking AOL what they have to
do to get AOL to screw Netscape. I think that just about sums up Bill's
way of doing business. And why a lot of decent folks dislike him and his
company.
As to merit, Linux is a strong, stable, multi-tasking operating
system that runs for months without crashing. This, even if it is not
superbly configured by experts. The kernel capabilities, and the X
Windows capabilities seem far greater than those of NT. Having purchased
several versions of NT, and Windows 95, having used various versions of NT
and 95 on contracts, I am Very Disappointed by the inferiority of MS
products! The only thing I use Windows for, is legacy applications.
I think it very telling that when I run 95 on one of my notebooks,
the fan is constantly running. When I run Linux, the cooling fan rarely
runs. On another machine, when I run 95, the CPU is painfully hot, yet
when I run Linux, it is just lukewarm. And I have timed PERL scripts on
both machines, finding that some run MUCH faster under Linux. Linux is
just more efficient, better written.
If they had a reputation for being fair, we would act differently;
but I think their actions speak louder than words. Had this been a fair
fight, every one of us would be able to vote with out dollars. Today,
many of us have no choice but to buy some of their products. I had to buy
95, even though I rarely have a use for it. It came on my notebook
computers. I bought new hard drives for them, and run LINUX on them most
of the time. But the prevalence of MS products forces me to maintain some
capacity for using it.
I think it wise for us to check the headers whenever replying to MS
apologists; from what I have seen, they don't all play fair, either!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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