What shall we do with the Microsoft.....

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Author: Mark R. Myers
Date:  
Old-Topics: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....
Subject: What shall we do with the Microsoft.....
Because then we wouldn't all be cheerleaders for Microsoft.
Unlike some, I don't see Microsoft as the "evil empire."
I see Bill Gates as probably one of Harvard Business School's brightest
dropouts.
Let us face it, in the early days of Micorsoft, he pulled some pretty good
moves, capitalized on others mistakes (IBM), and gave the public what it
needed--a GUI to run on an IBM-compatible machine.
I remember the early days (even before DOS became synonymous with just one
OS, rather than being short of the Disk Operating System). My first IBM
compatible PC was a Zenith EZ-PC with 16 shades of gray, CGA-compatible
monitor. The biggest hard drive you could get in a computer was 20MB, and
they were HUGE (those good old, MFM drives).
The EZ had 2 720KB 3.5" floppy drives. You would have to put the DOS boot
disk in one, and your program in the other. Q&A Write (a good word processor
at the time), fit easily onto 1 720K floppy, with a little room to spare.
Then I upgraded to Professional Write and had to use both floppy drives for
the one program.
The EZ came with 512KB of RAM, and right away I bought the only expansion
possible for it. That big box on the back gave it 640KB total RAM, a 1200
baud modem, and a serial port.
This was 1988 (so long ago). My wife would not TOUCH the thing. She could
not understand DOS, or swapping floppies, or anything like that. Once I set
Q&A up for her because she needed to write a paper.
Now, thanks to Win3.1, & Win95, and computers as a whole getting better, she
now teaches basic computing and software packages at our company (Win95,
SAP, Siebel, Lotus Notes (ugh), Office97). Why did she learn it? Because it
was graphical and it made sense to her.
There were 100s of millions of people like her.
Because these people started buying computers because computers became
easier, prices started to drop dramatically.
So, in a way, we can thank Bill Gates. Why? Partially because of his
products, the price of PCs has plummeted.
I know that if life would have been different, and any one of us would have
grown up to be Bill Gates, we wouldn't trade places with any one of us, even
for a second.
Do I like Microsoft business practices? No. Do I like some of their
products? Yes.
IMHO, I think what should be done is that MS's OS division should be
separated from the rest of the company. The OS division should openly share
any new API's or innovations in both current and upcoming OSes with other
vendors--whether they be Microsoft Software Division, IBM-Lotus, Corel,
Caldera, whoever. I think that would be fair. That would more level the
playing field. Then a small company would have the same knowledge of the
API's and the OS as Microsoft Software Division would. Whether they take
advantage of that knowledge, is up to them.
That is what I think should be done with Microsoft. And, BTW, I corrected
the spelling in the subject line.
Mark

-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of

Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 3:58 AM
To:
Subject: Re: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....


Why don't you guys take this conversation to a Microsoft oriented
mailing list?

On Fri, Mar 31, 2000 at 02:44:11PM -0700, Carl Parrish wrote:
> I believe that according to the anti-trust laws. *Being* a monopoly in an
> open market *is* against the law. (course I could be wrong. Memory of my
> history class is foggy at best)
>
> Carl Parrish
> Webmaster
> ComputerPREP.com
>
>
> From:
> [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Jim W
> Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 2:19 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....
>
>
> Not quite, Carl. The judge has decreed that M$ is a monopoly. The
decision
> about whether they violated any law is still pending. I agree that the
> judge's decree seems to indicate that he believes that there were laws
> broken, but until he states that in public, under the U.S. constitution,
M$
> is still innocent.
>
> Jim
>
> the future is now
>
> From: Carl Parrish <>
> To:
> <>
> Date: Friday, March 31, 2000 2:13 PM
> Subject: RE: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....
>
>
> >
> >The courts seems to disagree with you. They've already judged that M$ did
> >infact break the law.
> >
> >Carl Parrish
> >Webmaster
> >ComputerPREP.com
> >
> >
> >From:
> >[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Joseph
> >T. Tannenbaum
> >Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 12:48 PM
> >To:
> >Subject: RE: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....
> >
> >
> >They didn't "break the law", they just were not nice.
> >
> >Joe
> >
> >> From:
> >> [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Kevin
> >> O'Connor
> >> Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 9:21 PM
> >> To:
> >> Subject: Re: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....
> >>
> >>
> >> The buying public doesn't 'decide' ... They follow like lemmings.
> >>
> >> Microsoft has broken the law. There are penalties for that.
> >>
> >> Kevin O
> >>
> >> "Mark R. Myers" wrote:
> >> >
> >> > My vote is to do nothing and leave Microsoft alone.
> >> > No one put a gun to anyone's head and said that they had to purchase
a
> >> > Microsoft product.
> >> > No tobacco company got someone addicted to nicotine against their
will.
> >> > With the AOL/Time Warner merger, it will make them a much larger
> company
> >> > than Microsoft and should provide some formidable competition.
> >> > I like free software, but more importantly, I love free enterprise.
> >> > I say, let the buying public decide, not a judge.
> >> > There were no lawsuits by Sony when the VHS format (invented by
> >> JVC) beat
> >> > out Betamax, even though Betamax was a better product.
> >> > I say, let the market decide. Let the people decide.
> >> > There are some Microsoft products that I do like.
> >> > Microsoft gave me a free copy of Windows2000 Professional (see, they
> are
> >> > getting into free software! :-) )
> >> > IMHO, it is the best OS that they have put out yet.
> >> > But again, let the people decide.
> >> > I DO NOT like Microsoft's businesses practices. I think Bill
> >> Gates' parents
> >> > never taught him how to "play nice."
> >> > But there are other companies that I don't like their business
> practices
> >> > too.
> >> > I purchased SuSE 6.3 (I will give all of the disks away free to
> >> anyone who
> >> > wants them).
> >> > For some reason, I could not get it to print.
> >> > I never had that problem with any other brand of Linux.
> >> > When I contacted customer service via e-mail concerning the issue, as
a
> >> > registered SuSE users, I was informed that basic customer
> >> service did not
> >> > include the ability to make your computer able to print.
> >> > I am sorry, but I think that printing is one of the main
> >> reasons PCs took
> >> > off in the first place. I consider printing to be a "basic need" of
an
> >> > operating system.
> >> > So I disagree. I think Microsoft should be scolded for
> >> predatory business
> >> > practices, and that is that. Let the buyers decided.
> >> > I guess I'm just too much a disciple of Milton Freedman economics.
> >> > Mark
> >> >
> >> > From: "Furmanek, Greg" <>
> >> > To: <>
> >> > Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 3:01 PM
> >> > Subject: What shell we do with the Microsoft.....
> >> >
> >> > > I have great suggestion how to equalize the market MS
> >> > > is monopolizing!!!
> >> > >
> >> > > Fine MS $15,000,000,000.00 and donate the money to
> >> > > Free Software Foundation!!!!
> >> > >
> >> > > The Wolf
> >> > >
> >> > > _______________________________________________
> >> > > Plug-discuss mailing list -
> >> > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Plug-discuss mailing list -
> >> > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> >>
> >>
> >> "Waving away a cloud of smoke, I look up, and am blinded by a bright,
> >> white
> >> light. It's God. No, not Richard Stallman, or Linus Torvalds, but God.
> >> In
> >> a booming voice, He says: "THIS IS A SIGN. USE LINUX, THE FREE UNIX
> >> SYSTEM
> >> FOR THE 386."
> >> (Matt Welsh)
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Plug-discuss mailing list -
> >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> >>
> >
> >
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--
Don't hit a man when he's down -- kick him; it's easier.

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