My $.02
Did Microsoft use strongarm tactics? Yes.
Should they be punished? Yes, significantly.
Should the company be broken up? Maybe, but I'd rather they found something
else.
This is where I get concerned. Breaking it up along product lines (OS,
Office apps, etc...) would probably be OK. But, breaking it into three
different OS companies who are not allowed to work together? This would be
devastatingly bad. Consider if Debian, RedHat and SuSe all forked the Linux
kernel, and were forbid by law to include anything that one of the others
did. Very shortly, a program written for Debian would not be runnable on any
other distribution. While this would very definitely set Microsoft back, it
would also dramatically affect a very large number of programmers. Right
now, a programmer who writes for Windows can be assured that their program
will run on nearly any version of Windows, and thus will reach a large
segment of the market. Fragmenting the OS will only increase cost of
development, which will increase the cost of software from the software
companies, and may irrevocably harm the independent programmers, who cannot
afford the additional cost and/or time for development.
Michael J. Sheldon
Internet Applications Developer
Phone: 480.699.1084
http://www.desertraven.com/
PGP Key Available on Request
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