Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[David Schwartz]

Roedy Green wrote:

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

>>    Well shit, how surprising that they wouldn't want to do business
>> with you if you broke your agreements with them.

> I am going to summarise this then drop out. My blood pressure is at a
> boil.

> I was a computer retailer. We built custom computers. I had 8 people
> working for me.  This was in the time prior to Win95 when IBM had a
> clearly technically superior solution with OS/2 to MS's Windows 3.1

> I had no contract of any kind with MS.  I never bought anything from
> them directly. I was far too small a fish.  I bought the components
> including software through dozens of wholesale suppliers.

> MS threatened to put any retailer out of business who would not
> co-operate with them in extorting money from people who had no use for
> MS Windows who explicitly for various reasons did not want to buy MS
> windows.

    No, MS decided only to sell Windows to essentially Windows-only shops.

> To me that is no different from a popsicle manufacturer demanding I
> sell $200 popsicles with every machine I sold. The machines needed MS
> Windows no more than they needed a popsicle.

    You could have complied with their requests by selling computers only 
with Windows installed. That is, by only selling Windows PCs. All Microsoft 
was saying was "sell only our products or don't sell our products". This is 
a perfectly, normal typical franchise arrangement.

    You can't sell Whoppers and also sell any competing burgers that aren't 
Burger King branded.

> The particular way MS threatened to put me out of business was by
> threatening to arm twist all wholesalers to refuse to sell MS product
> to me, which any retailer needed to survive in those days.

    Right, I get that. You owed your entire business to Microsoft. Without 
their products, you would have had nothing, by your own admission. The way 
you repay them is by trying to screw them -- attract people who come in only 
because you offer Windows and then say "here's an OS that's better and 
cheaper".

> It was obviously quasi legal or the threats would have had paper to
> back them up so I could go to court now to sue the fuckers.

    It's perfectly legal and normal (for non-monopoly products). What do you 
have to agree to in order to purchase OSX wholesale? What do you have to 
agree to in order to purchase Solaris wholesale?

    Honestly, I don't understand why you're so worked up and ballistic about 
a perfectly typical franchisee/authorized reseller agreement.

    Microsoft could have refused to sell you Windows wholesale completely. 
That would have meant no business for you at all. In exchange for making 
your business possible, all they ask is you don't steer the customers you 
have only because of them to their competitors.

    DS