[ale] Fwd: Michael's Minute: Bill - I don't want your $1,158

[Michael D. Hirsch]

>From Michael Robertson, not me.

Michael

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Michael's Minute: Bill - I don't want your $1,158
Date: Wednesday 02 June 2004 02:51 pm
From: Michael Robertson <communication at lists.linspire.com>
To: mhirsch at nubridges.com

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Michael's Minute: Bill - I don't want your $1,158

---Original Message---
Subject: Bill - I don't want your $1,158
To: billg at microsoft.com
Cc: steveb at microsoft.com

Bill,

As you were probably informed over the weekend, your legal team lost the
 latest court battle against Lindows, Inc. in the windows trademark case.
 This time we were in a Dutch courtroom, where the Judge ruled against
 Microsoft on all counts. Here's a link to the English translation of the
 ruling. The ruling states that we can continue to use Lindows as we are now
 using it, but most telling was the Judge's monetary finding. In a case that
 Microsoft initiated and asked the Judge to fine us 100,000 euros per day,
 the Judge ruled the opposite direction and told Microsoft to pay us $1,158.

But truth be told, I don't want Microsoft's money, I just want a chance to
 compete and grow my company. If you can think back to when you started
 Microsoft, sure there were big companies like IBM, but they didn't use the
 ruthless tactics that Microsoft now employs. How could you have built your
 company in that kind of environment?

No, I don't want your money, I just want to compete without Microsoft
 terrorizing us and everyone in the PC business who works with us. It's tough
 building a business when hardware partners are told they will lose access to
 Microsoft tier 1 support if they help us. Resellers get squeamish when they
 get lawsuit threats from Microsoft. Retailers are hesitant when there is
 veiled innuendo that they may not be eligible for the MDF "market
 development funds" that you provide to them, which are key to their
 profitability. And of course, Lindows is bothered by your legal strategy to
 bury us with lawsuits.

I understand that Lindows is the most obvious target of Microsoft's actions,
 since we challenge Microsoft's power base - the desktop. I think we'd have a
 lot more than 350 OEMs if so many weren't intimidated by Microsoft. We'd
 probably have more stores carrying our computers with our one-click easy
 operating system if they didn't fear retaliation just for talking with us.

Of course, I'm keenly aware of how Microsoft has vanquished so many
 competitors in the past. To the portion of that success which can be
 attributed to healthy competition, you have my respect. But some portion has
 been built on dirty tactics, and I'm asking you to rethink using that
 strategy with desktop Linux and my company, Lindows.

Occasionally we hear from Microsoft employees who follow Lindows, and their
 reaction surprises me. (Hundreds of Microsoft employees receive the weekly
 Michael's Minute.) The first thing they usually do is apologize for the
 corporate behavior of lawsuits, bogus reports, and other underhanded
 tactics. They know the corporate mantra is "we like competition," but behind
 the scenes try to kill it. But they TRULY do want competition. They believe
 they can compete. They know that having Netscape around made them build
 Internet Explorer, but since Netscape was wiped out, Internet Explorer has
 stagnated. Bill - I encourage you to poll your employees and ask them
 yourself. I'm confident that they'll say they want to compete head-to-head
 with Linux in an wholesome manner.

Do you believe that Microsoft can compete with Linux? Do you believe in your
 employees? Do you believe in your products? I encourage you to consider
 abandoning the litigation and terror strategy. No more backing of lawsuits
 for trademark, patent or copyright issues against Linux. No more threatening
 of companies that add Linux to their product line-up. Just straight up
 competition against Linux. Your employees will thank you, and it will usher
 in an era of healthy competition in the PC business.

-- Michael


P.S. To all Michael's Minute subscribers: To re-energize desktop Linux in
 Benelux, Lindows is making its latest version of Linspire available for free
 via BitTorrent for a limited time using the coupon code linspire4benelux. 
 For complete instructions on receiving this special offer, please visit
 www.linspire.com/p2p-mm.

Please visit support.linspire.com to answers questions you may have about
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Linspire is a trademark. Copyright ? 2004. All rights reserved.

mm117

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