I have trouble with the charges levied against Microsoft.
Even if they stifled the competition, I still have problems with what the government is doing to them.
There are other operating systems available:
Mac
OS/2
UNIX (in all of it's various forms)
Linux
(DR-DOS may still be out there, too)
I have provided tech support for 100 users for over 8 years.
If each of them wanted their own picks of operating systems, I assure you we would have all of the operating systems listed above, and my job would be crazier than it is. I'd have all kinds of software packages to maintain, too.
People can load a different operating system on their PCs if they want. Linux is free, I believe. It's been suggested by some that PCs come with NO operating system. Just let the user install it! I wonder how many PCs would not have sold over the years if they hadn't come 'ready to run'?
Years ago someone told me OS/2 would fail because no one was writing applications for it. Many software vendors decided to ride on the coattails of Microsoft and write applications for Windows. Maybe these vendors should be sued, too. The government could force them to write versions of their software for the various operating systems and be 'fair'.
People want standardization and they have it with Windows, good or bad.
The guy who wrote DR-DOS had a chance to become Bill Gates, but didn't because of dumb luck.
Gates tried to get Jobs to release the Mac operating system so other computer manufacturers could sell their machines with it on them, but Apple wanted the whole thing - OS plus hardware. They lost market share because of it. Is that Gates' fault?
IBM could have forced the various Microsoft OS to only be on their PCs, but they didn't. Gates had the foresight to not lock in to IBM. The mainframe side of Big Blue had a disdain for the microcomputer side, and IBM lost the market they could have dominated because of internal bickering.
Gates is both smart in computers and a smart businessman. I'm not going to fault Microsoft when other companies make bonehead mistakes. Maybe the government could be suing Netscape now if they had 100% of the browser market.
It doesn't bother me either if Gates becomes a trillionaire, helps hundreds become billionaires, and tens of thousands of millionaires. Doesn't bother me a bit.
And, just think, all of this could have easily been avoided if Gates had given Clinton a couple of million dollars for his re-election in 1996.
I can understand having Microsoft make Windows 'open'. Outside parties would then help work out the bugs, but the way I see it, Windows would then become even stronger. |
