John, that certainly has been asserted, and you have repeated a portion of Microsoft's case quite well. You may not succeed in convincing the Judge of that view, however, anymore than you have convinced me.
Just as an aside, if Microsoft had the customers best interests at heart, why wouldn't they respond to customer requests for a version of the OS without the browser, in addition to one with the browser. There were apparently a very large number of folks who requested just that, but the strategy was to beat NSCP by whatever means it took. If the customer suffered in the process...well, too bad. That's my view, as one of those who requested either that W98 be provided without the browser....and who requested that my new computer be installed with W95, because I didn't like the browser integrated. Now, I am aware as anyone that Microsoft doesn't have to provide a damned thing to the customer that they don't care to. "Let them eat cake" wasn't limited to ancient history. And Henry Ford said that folks could have any color car they wanted, so long as it was black. The history of lack of concern by those in possession of absolute power is fairly consistent, so I don't REALLY expect Microsoft to give a damn about the consumer....but then I wish a lot of folks would quit claiming that they DO care...
tso |
