Posted on 01/06/2003 4:00:44 AM PST by chilepepper
From the title of this paper you may have guessed that I am less than pleased with the guys in Redmond. One might even say that my dislike for Microsoft is a pet hate gone out of control in an almost quixotic fashion. Why is this?
Of course I have been accused of personal antipathy, of being jealous of Bill Gates and his billions, and of being prejudiced against all things Microsoft without any reason whatsoever. But none of this is true. I have nothing personal against Bill Gates. Why should I? I don't know the man, I've never met him. I agree with those who say he might be the most succesful salesman in history. And I've always thought that even one billion in almost any currency is more than I could reasonably spend.
No. It's rather his business practices, and that of his company, that I am opposed to, for a large and still growing number of reasons, most of which are plain, verifiable facts. Let me explain.
Microsoft controls the current software market and has a de facto monopoly on the desktop. This monopoly has not been achieved and is not being maintained by offering the user community better products than Microsoft's competitors can offer. On the contrary, Microsoft has earned a reputation for selling unreliable software.
Windows is a technically inferior operating system with a seriously flawed architecture, weak security model and sloppy code, while other Microsoft applications are equally kludgey. New Microsoft products offer no essential improvements over previous or competing products, and their Return On Investment is between small and zero, in spite of Microsoft's boasts about being innovative and customer-driven.
Instead of making better software, Microsoft has focused on using brilliant but doubtful marketing tactics to force their products upon the user community in order to establish and maintain their monopoly. These methods include a tight integration of applications into the operating system, the bundling of applications with Windows to force competing application vendors out of the market, the mandatory bundling of Windows with new computer equipment, deliberate limitations in the compatibility of their own software with competing products, contracts that prohibit third parties to do business with anyone but Microsoft, and retaliatory practices against non-cooperating vendors. In addition to this, third-party developers are induced, through cheap or free development kits and the sabotaging of alternatives, to develop applications that contain proprietary system calls, are virtually non-portable, and are therefore bound to the MS-Windows platform. These methods only serve to further inflate Microsoft's already obscene profit margins, at the price of the interests of the user community, the IT market and the field of computer technology as a whole.
(Excerpt) Read more at euronet.nl ...
Result: the company bit the bullet and upgraded all the OTHER machines to Office2000 and features that were only marginally better than the ones they already had.
It is merely coincidence that we had layoffs six months later but that extra money would have come in handy in trying to save a job or two. I lost some good friends in those layoffs -- one was so upset that he developed Grey's disease, which can be brought on by stress. He was really devastated.
Did the extra money spend on the Office2000 CAUSE this? Of course not, but by the laws of unintended consequences it may have had an affect...
By supporting them, you support abortion and gun control." Are you sure about that?
My point was that it's silly to claim that Apple is liberal, while Microsoft is some sort of conservative company. It's not. There are some of each in both companies, and the majority of both tend to be liberal.
Just don't try to put Polaroid film in it, though.
From reading the history of the time, it appeasrs that one MAJOR mistake that IBM made was charging an arm and leg for the software development tools needed to program OS2 applications. At the same time, Microsoft was GIVING away similar tools for Windows to anyone who could totter up to their booth at COMDEX.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.