Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[David Schwartz]

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