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From: Bob Crothers But before we start attributing too much to MS, remember when Java died? For a while, MS was on the Java Bandwagon also. Then Sun complained about the way MS was doing things and filed a "Cease and Desist" order. MS complied with that order (to Sun's great surprise) and stopped shipping JVM's with windows. Be careful what you wish for, it might come true.
Just to be clear here: Microsoft was enjoined because they were extending the JVM in incompatible ways, in step with the Microsoft standard Embrace, Extend, Extinguish technique. Microsoft embraces a technology, adds Microsoft specific features, then forces everyone to their version by requiring those extensions, thereby wiping out the competition. Microsoft dropping the faulty JVM was the best thing that could have happened to Java (next to Microsoft actually supporting Open Source, which will never happen).
But the bottom line is that MS does NOT exist to enhance our lives. They exist to enhance the lives of MS Shareholders. It's called capitalism.
Yeah, but there is such a concept as corporate ethics which covers such things as monopolistic practices, unfair labor practices, that sort of thing. Some companies follow them of their own accord, some need to be sued to do so. Microsoft has consistently shown through their actions and even through internal memoranda that they knowingly violate these ethical principles and need to be sued to keep their hands clean.
They are no more of an evil empire than IBM was in the 70's.
I don't know how bad IBM was in the 70's. In the 80's, they made a number of glaringly stupid mistakes, from misgauging the commoditization of the PC to dropping the ball on OS/2, You might argue that these were simply failed attempts to pull the same dirty tricks Bill Gates has pulled so successfully over the years, but I haven't seen anything like that in decades. Certainly these days, IBM is far worse to IBM than to the outside world. The foolish internecine warfare between the System i and pretty much everybody else is a clear example of that. Joe
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