[The government has been interested in ways that Microsoft may give price breaks or other inducements to computer makers to promote its software.]
This theory about MSFT taking unfair advantage of computer makers doesn't hold water. Compare to what their competition does. SUNW, AAPL, IBM, DEC, etc, don't even need computer makers. They package the OS with their own hardware, and of course, they package it exactly the way they want and would tell you to kiss off if you told them you wanted a copy without a particular icon.
It's MSFT that has let GTWY, DELL, CPQ, and a hundred others get in the game at all. If it were left to SUNW, AAPL, IBM, DEC etc these companies would never have existed in the first place.
If it's good for competition to force MSFT to let computer makers do more of what they want with Windows, isn't is also good to force SUNW, AAPL, IBM, DEC etc to sell their OSes to independent computer makers in the first place? |
