blankmind: I happen to agree but bringing up the name of Bork was in this case counterproductive to our argument as the guy as become almost as desperate and addled as AG. Here is an article that resonates with ours of the past concerning the impracticality of this whole break up idea.
This thing is really DOA on arrival at Appeals Court and in addition the proposed remedies make no sense as well.
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Group Pegs Windows Breakup Cost: $30bil
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 2000 FEB 25 (Newsbytes) -- By Dick Kelsey, Newsbytes. Consumers and the information technology industry will pick up the tab for a $30 billion increase in software costs if Windows is broken up, according to a paper written on behalf of the Association for Competitive Technology.
"People are living in a fool's paradise if they think that the Windows standard will remain intact if the product is divided among multiple companies," said economist Stan Liebowitz, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. "Just look at what has happened with the Unix and Linux operating systems, where competing versions are nowhere near compatible. This example provides absolute and directly relevant evidence of what we would see in a fragmented Windows marketplace."
Not so, says the Software Information Industry Association. "It looks like he is basing his cost analysis on the assumption that the Windows OS (operating system) will necessarily fragment after the breakup," SIIA executive vice president Lauren Hall told Newsbytes. "I think that's an assumption you cannot make."
Liebowitz, who presented his findings at an ACT-sponsored conference today, interviewed industry experts and studies of software development to reach his conclusion, ACT vice president Steve DelBianco said. "The research saw a three-year cost of $30 billion for testing, support and distribution for three versions of Windows that might result from a breakup."
This week closing arguments were presented in the Microsoft antitrust trial, the outcome of which - some observers believe - will shape the future of the high-tech industry. A decision is expected within one month.
Liebowitz says arguments that competing versions of Windows will produce only minor changes are unsupported. "Even with just one company producing Windows, we've seen an average 20 percent increase in functionality a year. "It will be impossible for competing operating systems to remain compatible with one another while they are adding functionality at these rapid rates."
But the SIIA's Hall insists an old theory applies in the Microsoft case: "It's a well-known fact that monopolies cost consumers more than a competitive marketplace does."
JFD |
