RE: "To prohibit MicroSoft from offering a browser with the O/S would be like prohibiting car manufacturers from offering A/C as a standard feature of an automobile, to protect independent automobile A/C sellers. "
Some Points:
* Anti-trust laws apply to car manufacturers too.
* There is not just one car manufacturer out there.
* Car mfgs. buy air conditioning parts and technology from outside sources, MS would not. It would effectively insulate itself.
* Car buyers have long been protected from being sold tricked-up cars rigged to run on only one supplier's brand of non-unique tire, spark plug, fan belt, or air conditioner replacement part.
The effect of excluding all browser competition from unprejudiced access to virtually all computers on the planet would be to create an artificial monopoly to eliminate the existence of browser competition WITHOUT ever having to compete against any other browser in the market place.
Think of this: If Microsoft actually succeeds in getting its Explorer product to be virtually the only access used to reach the internet, all the rewards and revenues that go to internet browsers for internet commerce now pass exclusively through Microsoft's hands. Bill knows this. That's why the smoke-screen about the OS being able to work only with the "free" Explorer browser. (Does anyone really believe that other browsers could not be made to work with W98?)
Ask yourself this also: If MS is successful in rigging the browser market, how much browser innovation would there be going on out side of Microsoft?
Or, worse yet, how much browser innovation would there be going on inside Microsoft?!
I Say Relax: This DOJ anti-trust stuff may impinge on Bill Gates' ego, but it is the best and most capitalistic thing for Microsoft, for Microsoft shareholders, for Microsoft product users, and for the technical economy as a whole. IMHO
HR
PS: The idea here is not to protect the competition, its to protect competition. HR |
