[ale] petition

[Benjamin Dixon]

On Fri, 15 Feb 2002, Geoffrey wrote:
> 
> Benjamin Dixon wrote:
> > As scary as MS and the thought of anything MS on linux is, these comments
> > are just as frightening. While MS may have been cunning in their
> > questionably legal marketing manuevers, let's face it, they've played the
> > business game the best of anyone. Their code, no matter how evil, is not
> > a random occurrence but is the product Microsoft's investment in time and
> > money to create a product. If they don't want you to see the gears, thats
> > their decision. Its their code, they should be able to do what they want
> > with it no matter how much of a "threat" they pose.
> 
> You are just plain wrong.  They have broken the law, therefore different 
> rules apply.  They have destroyed companies, and along with them peoples 
> livelyhoods.  It would be different if they were just very good at 
> software design, but they are not.  They have destroyed the OS market 
> with there illegal dealings.  Just as a convicted felon loses some 
> rights, so must Microsoft.

How have they destroyed companies any differently then all the other
companies out there would like to see their competition annihilated? Lest
we forget, most people are not in business to make great products, they
are in business to make money. Besides, some would argue that MS
*created*, not destroyed, the consumer OS market (ie. desktops) Whether
they are good at software design is totally irrelevant in the most obvious
way, they are the market leader. I'm not even sure convicted felons are
forced to give up their intellectual property rights. Granted, a
mega-monopoly is distinct from a felon by definition anyway.
 
> Ultimately its the
> > people who continue to buy into their monopoly that are causing the
> > problem.
> 
> That's easily said, but the fact that they are so imbedded makes it 
> impossible.  More companies would go out of business if they just flat 
> out quit using M$ products.  Customers would complain, there would be a 
> huge cost in converting existing M$ formatted files to some other format.

Customers would complain? Oh my! You mean this is a consumer-driven
market? Shame on Microsoft! I agree there is a huge cost in converting all
those damn Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to some reasonable open
format. Blame management for those decisions, not MS.

> 
> If you're worried about nefarious things going on inside the code
> > that you don't know about, which is undoubtably the case, don't buy their
> > products for linux, windows, or any other operating system.
> 
> Some folks don't have a choice.  And I, will not deny my 10 year 
> daughter the opportunity to play games that are only windows based.

Not denying your daughter the "opportunity to play games that are only
windows based" is indeed a choice you make. The problem is, its a choice
people are willing to make to support MS. 

I guess the point is, yes MS has achieved monopoly status, which is pretty
much the victory condition for the game. Because of that, they're gonna be
penalized, apparently to the point of opening up their products to outside
review. Surely this is great for the competition, you get the government
to take apart your primary competitor for you. The thing linux and all of
open source has going for it is that MS can't buy it up like they do
everything else and this is why they're threatened by it. It would be a
far greater victory for the open source movement if instead of taking what
the government can get out of MS, we leveraged this advantage. 

> It's not black and white.

Which is unfortunate. But MS seems to realize that their strategy is not
going to work too much longer. They still have a tight grip on the desktop
market but it seems the growth potential of that market is capped. How
much stuff can you possibly add to an OS before you can't add enough major
features that its marketable as different from your previous release?

Ben


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