Bearded, sure, TCP/IP is only a protocall, not a UI. But there's still a problem with drawing a line between what they can and can't do. Today, you don't think a browser should be integrated into the OS. What will you be thinking in the future? After all, the internet is so important, compelling, and all that, right? If "The internet changes everything," wouldn't that also mean it changes what we expect from our OS?
What did you think of it when Microsoft first shipped Windows (which was nothing more than a UI--similar to IE integration)? Did you think it was too much of an application to be considered part of the OS? Now what do you think about it? Isn't it pretty natural that almost all OSes these days come with a GUI? Don't you agree that if MSFT would not have created Windows and bundled it with DOS, another company would have done so--and we wouldn't even be having a conversation about how MSFT needs to be stopped?
IBM and others were included in the "etc." Yes, I do believe that MSFT is far more powerful than IBM in the PC space. Financials are irrelevant, MSFT has more control over the PC than IBM could hope to.
what about Sun+Oracle+Netscape+IBM?
This is fitting in with the part about making so many enemies out of weaker players, that it becomes one unified, strong enemy. |
