Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[John Bokma]

"Matt Garrish" <matthew.garrish at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> 
> "Tim Roberts" <timr at probo.com> wrote in message 
> news:a103l1tkejrc99s0385qjqqhm96d46dpc4 at 4ax.com...
>> "Jeroen Wenting" <jwenting at hornet dot demon dot nl> wrote:
>>>
>>>Microsoft isn't evil, they're not a monopoly either.
>>>If they were a monopoly they'd have 100% of the market and there'd be
>>>no other software manufacturers at all.
>>
>> This is wrong.  The dictionary definition of a monopoly is when a
>> manufacturer has all or nearly all of a market.  Microsoft DOES have
>> a monopoly on PC operating systems.
>>
>> That, in itself, is not necessarily illegal.  However, Microsoft then
>> USED that monopoly power to stifle their competition, and that IS
>> illegal. 
>>
>> Part of their behavior really escape me.  The whole thing about
>> browser wars confuses me.  Web browsers represent a zero billion
>> dollar a year market.  Why would you risk anything to own it?
>>
> 
> It may not be worth loads of money in-and-of itself now (don't forget 
> Netscape wasn't always free, though), but if you control how people
> view the Internet you can make a lot of money in other ways,
> especially if you build your browser into your operating system and
> warp standards

Which standards? W3C doesn't make standards (they talk about working 
drafts and recommendations), so nothing to warp there for MS.

> so that people who design sites take advantage of the
> proprietary features.

Yup, Netscape did the same, remember LiveScript (renamed to JavaScript 
for obvious reasons), and the elements they added? (Like the, horror, 
blink)

> Eventually the hope is that your OS and browser
> will become the only means of accessing the internet. And if your OS
> and browser are the only way to access the Internet, who in their
> right mind would use another system? 

It's not happening, so what are you talking about? Any developer hoping 
the above has no clue what he/she is developing.

-- 
John                   Small Perl scripts: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
               Perl programmer available:     http://castleamber.com/
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