From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sun Apr 09 2000 - 14:06:41 MDT
Matt Gingell <mjg223@is7.nyu.edu> Wrote:
>dump products at below cost confers advantage. The ability to deliberately
>break competing software via changes to the system confers advantage. [...]
>I wind up buying Windows because I need to run software that won't run
>anywhere else --- even if I think it's junk.
I see. So Microsoft gauges consumers by charging too little for their product, and
Microsoft products are junk but work better than their competitors because they
have secret knowledge of the operating system. What's wrong with this picture?
>Software vendors support the most popular platform because it's popular
And that surprises you?
>Windows is popular because that's where the software is.
Yes.
>It's self sustaining
Yes.
>deliberately maintained by Microsoft,
Well, they do their best to. I wish them well.
>and insidious.
No. People will continue to use Windows until somebody comes up with an
operating system that is so wonderful it overcomes the huge disadvantage
of not being able to run thousands of popular programs that took millions of
man years to write. Is Windows the best operating system on earth? Of course
not, but the best system will never, ever, be the most popular one, there's just
no way it could be.
If it wasn't so destructive this entire anti trust thing would be comic.The government,
the government mind you, is trying to tell the most productive area in all of human
history how to improve and innovate. A maker of steam powered cement mixers
advising INTEL how to modernize their fabrication plants would make more sense.
There is a simple test to see If the "Justice" department really is knowledgeable in
this area, Microsoft should stop supporting their products for 30 days and refer
all inquires to Janet Reno and her lawyers, then let's see what happens.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:27:55 MST