Re: RE: Free OS/400

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Naughton" <mnaughton@juddwire.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: RE: Free OS/400


> IMHO, the reason Micro$oftt has "won" (so far) is that their products have
> become de facto standards: everybody uses them so everybody knows how to

You see, this stuff just rises in my throat.

Microsoft has now been through two very public national trials which
explained very well how they "won" the marketplace. In both trials, they
lost and were found to be an illegal monopoly. There is not time, space, nor
patience enough for me to list the little gems of "business practice" that
led to both their success and conviction. I probably should just put up a
web site or FAQ someplace. ;-)

However, after the first case in 1995 the judge involved (I believe his name
was Sporkin) refused to sign the consent decree on behalf of the Justice
department. He stated that he felt that the consent decree did not really
address the problem nor the damage done by Microsoft. He was removed from
the case and another judge, friendlier to Microsoft, signed it. Amusingly
that judge's name was Thomas Jackson, now removed from the current case
because of his public statements about Microsoft.

For those interested in the Microsoft/Mac page, in the third quarter of
1997, when the anti-trust suit vs. Microsoft flared up again because they
had ignored the original consent decree, Apple was failing badly and close
to bankruptcy. If Apple should fail, Microsoft couldn't really point to any
alternative desktop at all in the marketplace. Microsoft bought $150 million
worth of Apple and established a branch office across the street. They
updated many of their Apple products and shored up the failing
computer/software company.

Those who have watched the Apple/Microsoft relationship over the last 20
years have seen some rather criminal acts there as well. Microsoft dominates
the application market in the Apple world and has used that to control the
Apple market more than once.

> Just my $.02 . . . .
>
>
> Mike Naughton

Chris Rehm
javadisciple@earthlink.net
If you believe that the best technology wins the
marketplace, you haven't been paying attention.


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