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

To: K. M. Strickler who wrote (4921)	2/1/1998 9:26:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Ken, I think I should offer you an apology You have obviously been through all of this. I think where we differ with regard to MSFT is that you are looking at them as the vehicle for progress whereas I look at them as the vehicle of profit at the expense of others. They didn't do the innovation, they profited off the innovation of others. There are very solid products out there that Gates will crush because they get in the way of MSFT's monopoly. We are going to be left with stagnation. Gates is getting too big and too powerful and he is out to crush the innovators and hold back progress. He sees other products competing with MSFT as a personal threat. IF MSFT controls the Internet the way they control the desktop OS and extends that control to the web top, then content will follow. Just as surely as Fox broadcasts Rupert Murdoch's point of view. I'm against monopolies, just as I'm against dictatorships. I think MSFT should be broken up with the OS groups forming one company and the applications groups another. This would restore a level playing field. You seem to believe that innovation just comes from somewhere magically. In point of fact it was the end of "work for hire" that permitted engineers to own the software they developed. The PC created a level playing field for a time. The explosion of software innovation was the result of allowing individuals to own the product of their own labor and not have to surrender their intellectual property to more powerful entities. We have now reached the point where MSFT is out to reverse that scenario. IT will determine what can coexist with its OS (that is the essence of the recent Novell/NT conflict). MSFT is taking the proprietary OS route. They are becoming like the IBM of the 60's and 70's. May I point out that history is replete with examples of countries which have repressed the initiative of the non-elite. The US was settled by people who couldn't have a chance at owning property in their countries of origin. They came here where honest labor could be rewarded and titles or privileges didn't count. If you go back in US history you will find Crown monopolies granted to land, fishing rights, mineral rights etc. etc. But the Kings of England couldn't enforce those monopolies. MSFT will enforce its monopoly, down to the level of a tariff on each computer system, bank transaction, and approval. Moreover I think the fact that they delved into the Federal Court appointed magistrates E-mail, does not bode well for a MSFT dominated future. ====================== This is my last post on this topic. Once again my apologies for taking up so much of your time.