Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[Roedy Green]

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 04:06:16 -0700, "David Schwartz"
<davids at webmaster.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who
said :

>    Right I understand that. You could have complied simply by only selling 
>computers with Windows preinstalled. In other words, you could have treated 
>this the same as a demand for franchise or exclusivity if you had wanted to.

It is obvious to everyone WHY MS did this, to maintain monopoly. But
ignore motive for a while and see what they actually did and exactly
how they intended to carry out he threat of destroying my business.
What they did is clearly criminal. The hard part is proving it. Like
any smart criminal who makes a threat, MS left no paper trail..

1. it was a threat to destroy a business -- e.g vandalise tens of
thousands of dollars of property.  For all practical purpose they
threatened to steal my business.  It would be roughly the same dollar
value as threatening to burn down a large house.

2. it was a threat to force me to commit a criminal act -- namely
extract money from people and hand it to Microsoft and give those
people nothing of value in return. That in principle is no different
from demanding I go out an night and rob people and give MS the
proceeds.  The selected victims were those who expressed a contempt
for MS products by refusing to buy or even have any need for them.

3. What MS did was theft, namely taking money from people and giving
them nothing of value in return against their will.

What if MS had simply made the threat without being specific about how
they were going to carry it off? Would you consider MS so innocent
then?

-- 
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
http://mindprod.com Java custom programming, consulting and coaching.