How high will Microsoft fly? Message Board

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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?

MSFT 492.01

+1.3%

Nov 28 9:30 AM EST

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To: ToySoldier who wrote (16138)	2/16/1999 6:05:00 PM
From: Claude	Read Replies (6) of 74651

Ok Toy - let's take a simple example. Word processors. You say that MSFT coopted the market by virtue of their monopoly. I beg to disagree. Wordperfect was THE word processor and they owned the market. Everyone was using it in DOS. MSFT made a HUGE gamble on windows and won. When wordperfect finally realised their huge mistake they came out with their windows version. They totally screwed up - they used their old dos based printer drivers instead of windows based drivers and the GUI sucked. That was the beginning of the end. And why shouldn't MSFT reap the rewards from the windows platform. The early versions sucked but they stuck to it. Why didn't IBM the company you revere so much drop the ball so badly there. They could have owned the OS. Apple pretty much controls the MAc platform - even the hardware. Just because it hasn't been as successful doesn't make it different. Where I find your assertions naive is in that myopic view of yours that MSFT is evil and is stifling innovation. Look around you Toy at everything happening. You yourself are seeing the chinks in MSFTs armour. Novells directory technology, Suns Java and related technologies such as JINI, new PDA OS's by Psion and others, the INternet. Oh yes very stifling. Please - MSFT is not the bogieman(sp?), its just a company, admittedly one that yields quite a lot of power. But then it created the windows/PC industry and it should reap the rewards for that. But windows will be supplanted some day, even Gates admits it. I just think that MSFT could be the one to do it, or it could be SUN or maybe someone we haven't imagined yet. But as for stifling the industry? The advancements in high tech today are making previous advancements seem like a snails pace. We live in a free capitalistic society and I see plenty of innovation from competitors. You just believe too much in the whining of the likes of Ellison and McNealy. I can see why Ellison whines, they can't come up with anything but a datase even with all the money they have. Now McNealy I don't understand - why waste time bashing MSFT - its just makes him look juvenile. Oh and as for CSCO you could make an argument that they have a monopoly in the enterprise space for data networks. But that wasn't my point - I was just pointing out a modus operandii that is common in many tech companies and they are not considered nefarious for it. And please no lemmings retorts OK. You're like a broken record Toy. And just to set the record straight I'm far from a MSFT lemming. I'm a programmer and a java believer. So I can see change coming - but it doesn't happen overnight and companies like MSFT don't disappear overnight because you wish it. And Toy I am not going to waste any more of my precious time with you as you are a one trick pony who likes climbing up on a soapbox and shouting. You won't be hearing any more from me. Claude p.s. judging by the tone of your post I guess I hit a nerve so I apologize if my words were too strong as they were not intended as a personal insult, just my opinion.

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