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Matter of opinion

As far as Microsoft's restrictions on OEMs vis-a-vis Windows preloads, the settlement with the government did change that. Now, it's only a matter of convincing Dell, etc. that it's to their advantage to supply alternatives.

As for Microsoft's treatment of Netscape Navigator, well, what could the government do to revive it? Once dead, it's dead (although it has been showing some signs of life lately). It looks to me like the industry itself has come up with adequate competition to IE, and one could argue that it was precisely Microsoft's preoccupation with the anti-trust issues that allowed those alternatives to get a foothold.

Now, if you mean competition in the sense of competitors who could charge for their products instead of having to give them away, that's another issue. Many here have been saying that free (as in speech) software is the wave of the future anyway (the natural result of the commoditization of software), so why is it so bad that Microsoft's competitors have to come from the OSS camp? If anything, one could argue that Microsoft actually hastened the evolution of free software through its heavy-handed tactics.

You should be thanking MS.

Carl Rapson

Posted by: rapson   Posted on: 07/21/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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