Indeed. Is MSFT anticompetitve? A rhetorical question.
The MSFT motto: "If we can't control, buy someone who can. If that doesn't work, pour billions into advertising to brainwash people into thinking that it did."
All legal so far, but it continues... "If that doesn't work, take the competitors technology, twist it into a MSFT roach motel and bury it in our operating systems (1)."
Starting to get a bit ify now? But there is more... "If we can't do that, or it doesn't stop them, wage war - Strategically hire off their talent (2), buy their partners (3), suffocate their PR and Advertising by pouring money at those who do business with them (4), give away competing technology for free (5), give those who would use our free technology free subscriptions to paid services (6)."
Whooa... Now some of this is downright ugly.. But wait, it gets worse.. "If they still persist, switch to black ops. Write viruses into our own software which causes problems when their products are used (7), steal their trade-secrets (8), steal their engineers (9) and hell, steel entire products if possible (10) - although we need to provide a slightly different look&feel once we get the source code. Throughout all of this, lie to our faithful consumers -- let them know how innocent and nice we are, just a bunch of sweet, innocent computer nerds headed by the biggest and most lovable nerd of all."
Don't believe it?
Examples:
(1) Doing it with Java now (Java is a thorn in Bill's side). Doing it with Internet Explorer (Netscape is a serious thorn in Bill's side). Did it with UNIX standard libraries (enter here and never leave), etc.. "Embrace and Extend" is the PR term here folks - it means "Duplicate and add the little wings on the front of the roach motel, so that once someone uses it, they can never go back to where they came from."
(2) Borland -- read about this in today's news.
(3) MSFT just bought DimensionX, a partner of JavaSoft (SUN Microsystems). Does MSFT intend to sell any of DimensionX's products? No. There are many other examples of this.
(4) Examine any publication that Netscape, Novel or Borland advertise in. Other people are free to add support to this (quite self-evident) accusation. It assumes (rashly, for not all organizations are like this) that most advertising-revenue based publications give preferential treatment (positive revues, etc..) to the BIG CLIENTS. Dirty dealings happen here as well, but I won't make those accusations , since I don't know of any that have been publicly substantiated.
(5) FREE: Internet Explorer. FREE: Internet Information Server. Many others..
(6) MSFT paid some large number of online service-providers to give free subsctiptions to all users of Internet Explorer. Illegal? Perhaps not - although it is certainly a grey area given the situation.
(7) During the Sporkin investigation of MSFT, internal memo's at MSFT where exposed that show MSFT writing in "disabling" code to stop competitors software from working correctly. This is a trojan-horse virus and very illegal. Nothing was done about it (Sporkin was replaced with someone who dropped the case against MSFT immediately, then retired).
(8) QuickTime -- Apple won a settlement due to Microsoft using QuickTime source and calling it "Video For Windows".
(9) Many examples -- Borland most recently in the news.
(10) Stacker -- Stac Technologies $100 Million lawsuit won against MSFT (Stacker was included as doublespace in dos6)
The overwhelming image that this presents is that MSFT is one big organized crime ring. A bit harsh? Not really. They have everyone (probably including you, who reads this posting) fooled into thinking that they are a technology company. They are not - there is ALMOST NOTHING that was invented at MSFT. They buy, steal, cheat, sabotage and MARKET their way to the top. They are one hell of a great marketing company - I will give them that.
Would the world be better off if they were split up? You better believe it. Without the O/S to use as a monopolistic and anti-competitive weapon, a level playing field would be created for competition. We would start to see the truly innovative companies (and many of these exist) make a few pennies which were henceforth being robbed from them. Once the innovation-reward cycle hit the consumer and enterprise PC software market, everyone (except Bill) would benefit.
I vote we nuke Redmond and be done with it. But I love technology and have the greatest respect for the superstars who create it. So of course I would feel this way...
-Dan |
