Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[Iain King]

David Schwartz wrote:
> Roedy Green wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 16:31:41 GMT, Roedy Green
> > <my_email_is_posted_on_my_website at munged.invalid> wrote, quoted or
> > indirectly quoted someone who said :
>
> >> I used to be a retailer of custom computers.  MS used a dirty trick
> >> to compete with IBM's OS/2.  They said to me as a retailer. You must
> >> buy a copy of our OS for EVERY machine you sell.  The alternative is
> >> to pay full retail for the OSes.
>
> > Through intimidation, MS managed to control the entire retail computer
> > market  in Vancouver BC to the extent you could not buy even the most
> > stripped down computer  without having to buy a copy of Windows with
> > it, whether you wanted it or not.
> >
> > You might not want it because you bought OS/2.
> >
> > You might not want it because you already owned Windows from your
> > older machine you were upgrading.
> >
> > You might not want it because somebody stole your machine and they did
> > not steal all your software masters.
>
>     Tell me, can you buy a new car without seats? Guess what, you have to
> buy those seats whether you want them or not.
>
>     Try to start a business selling competing seats for a new car. Your
> seats may be cheaper, better, but how can you possibly compete when people
> have to pay for factory car seats whether they want them or not?
>
>     The real reason PCs were not available without Windows was because not
> enough people wanted them that way to justify setting up a business to
> provide them that way, and Microsoft was not going to let a business
> parasitically use Windows to build a business that touted the advantages of
> competing products. (Just as Burger King corporate will not you sell Big
> Macs in the same store in which you sell Whoppers.)
>
>     DS

Don't you see how your metaphor doesn't work?  It would only be fitting
if Microsoft OWNED the outlet.  Places which sell Whoppers are Burger
King franchises, so of course they aren't going to sell Big Mac's.  PC
hardware stores do not belong to microsoft.  There just isn't any
correlation.

Iain