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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (4879)	1/30/1998 9:17:00 PM
From: George Jenkins	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74651

"Wrong again. When you buy a computer the OS is included already as part of the price. If you delete it you have already paid for it." Wrong. If you go to one of the hundreds of custom computer stores in the US you can buy a machine without an OS. Or, you can have OS/2, Linux, Solaris, SCO, FreeBSD or any other OS you want installed on it. Some of the major manufacturers will also sell you an Intel box with your choice of OS pre-installed. In all of these cases, you do not pay for an MS operating system if you don't want it. Consumers have many operating systems to choose from.

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (4879)	1/31/1998 1:51:00 AM
From: Gerald Walls	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Wrong 100% on IBM IBM introduced the PC as an open system. It did not monopolize the OS. If it had then MSFT would never have existed. Becasue IBM left the OS as an open system, MSFT was able to license OS ROM code to the "clones" as the CPQ's of the day were called. IBM never had aan unchecked monopoly on the PC. Your facts are completely wrong. Get your facts straight before you rant. Microsoft and it's operating systems do not and have never had anything to do with the ROM BIOS. IBM did the hardware and licensed Microsoft to write an operating system and BASIC interpreter. There was very shortly afterwards a CPM OS (the dominate [only?] microcomputer operating system of the day) available and soon thereafter DR-DOS by Digital Research. (To the best of my knowledge DR-DOS is still sold and is still MS-DOS compatible.) "You are perfectly free to use Linux and not pay MSFT's price." Wrong again. When you buy a computer the OS is included already as part of the price. If you delete it you have already paid for it. I can go to Fry's Electronics on Saturday morning and buy a monitor, a case with power supply, a motherboard, a floppy, a CD-ROM, memory and a hard disk. I can take this home and install FreeBSD or Linux on this virgin system that has never had any operating system on it before. Note that this machine can go through it's entire useful life and never have any Microsoft product installed on it. Oh, and by the way, it will have a ROM BIOS (probably by American Megatrends Inc [AMI] but watch as you boot your machine to see what Microsoft-independent company wrote yours) that Microsoft still had nothing to do with. Where did I pay for Windows? Just because you choose to doesn't mean you must. Is it easier to buy a complete system with the OS installed? Hell yes, but don't confuse ease with someone holding a gun to your head.