Making customers miserable the Microsoft way

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History Lesson

You wrote:
Historians trace the root causes of the Fall of Rome back to events that happened when Rome's strength was at its height. It was long after Rome began weakening itself that Hanible, the Goths, and the Visigoths could come in hand the Romans their lunch.

Ahm, Hannibal was a Carthaginian general who fought the Republic before Rome became an empire.

A favorite historical narrative: while the enemy was encamped outside the walls of Rome, the citizens of the Republic auctioned off the ground on which the enemy stood. Got a reasonable price for it, too.
Seems like Microsoft besieged by the pigmies, doesn't it?! (No offense to pigmies intended.)

Here's another story from Republican times.
When Brennus the Celt conquered the city and came into the central square, he found the male citizens too old to defend the place seated in chairs out in the open. The Romans said the Celts thought they might be statues of gods (though I kind of doubt this).
The Celts went to them quietly, looked them over, began to touch them until one elderly citizen pushed him back with a cane. Then the Celts slaughtered them. (I also doubt this, for no better reason than the dishonor to the Celts.)
This is sort of like the way Unix is being defended against Linux by SCO.

One last, since you're all so interested:
When Brennus was receiving a certain weight of tribute as payment for leaving the city, a squabble broke out over whether the weights on the scale had been properly balanced. Brennus looked over at it briefly and tossed his sword onto one of the plates on the scale. The sword decided a fair measurement, whatever the technical truth might have been.
Think of this unfair, exploitive, but thorough control as being similar to IBM's control over Linux. The sword is money and time and acceptance by other companies.


See how useful history is in understanding the present?

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

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