Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[Peter T. Breuer]

In comp.os.linux.misc David Schwartz <davids at webmaster.com> wrote:
>     Yes, but that's the "if". I have a monopoly on *me* mowing your lawn. 
> You can, of course, go to someone else to have your lawn mowed.

Of course you can't - why would anyone else be available to mow my lawn
just because I want it to be so? Mowing a lawn requires a lifetime's
investment of skill acquirement, plus a small army of lawn mower
backup fronds advancement teams sitting in cold offices setting up the
lawnmower oil. And while I was searching for somebody else to do the
work my lawn business would be losing money like a sieve.


> Microsoft 
> only had a monopoly on *Microsoft* operating systems. Microsoft had no 

Nonsense. Microsoft had an effective monopoly on *IBM PC* operating
systems, thanks to nasty illegal competition-killing tactics that in
themselves were illegal (such as making their programs not work with
ther versions of dos).

> control over OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, and so on.

They had plenty of control, thanks to their monopoly position (and
Linux didn't exist then, FreeBSD came soon but was not a client
offering).

>     Essentially, Microsoft asked for exclusive arrangements. That is, 
> arrangements wherein you could not sell competing products if you wished to 
> sell Microsoft products. That's not even remotely unusual.

It soitenly is, stanley. In case you hadn't noticed, the shops sell
more than one kind of washing powder.

Please stop this shillism.

Peter