How the game gets played zdnet.com
But outside the confines of the law, there's still the issue of what actually happened -- in this and other instances where Microsoft and its twin Bash Brother, Intel, decide it's time to twist a few arms to get their way. And twist they do -- leaving the objects of their attentions two clear choices: go along or suffer the consequences.
That's not hyperbole. Microsoft and Intel executives are nothing but blunt when they want to shove something down the industry's throats. Consider, for example, the way they've been able to turn IBM, once the biggest, baddest kahuna of them all, into a trained puppy. . . .
Microsoft has also been known to convince its partners to do its bidding by squeezing hard. Again, consider the way it kept IBM in line over Windows 95. The software maker was keen on ensuring that IBM stuck special Windows stickers on its machines. Unlike Intel, which made its 'Intel Inside' sticker campaign a condition for PC makers to recive advertising rebates, Microsoft made this a condition for licensing Windows 95.
Microsoft made it plain to IBM: fall in line and do what we want or you are going to pay $100 for every copy of Windows 95. Do what we want and the price is $35.
Legal? Illegal? That's for the lawyers to decide. But this is the way the game gets played.
Of course, I would clarify that second last sentence. It's for the lawyers to argue and the judges to decide. Others disagree, and would prefer that matters of law be decided by various backroom negotiations between our illustrious president and the butchers of Beijing. To each his own.
Cheers, Dan. |
