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

To: mozek who wrote (6942)	5/12/1998 8:34:00 PM
From: Hal Rubel	Respond to of 74651

Citizen Gates I must admit to my deep personal bias regarding Microsoft's methods in the market place. I had been in PC sales and consulting for 12 years. I have owned a Mac by preference but I do use Windows at work doing technical writing. Windows is ok. My take is that Microsoft has prospered because of an unfounded widespread fear of Operating System Anarchy expertly exploited by master salesman Bill Gates using adequate but not very innovative software. I say "unfounded" because Mac never has troubled me with working with Wintel equipment, software, and networks. Also, the Mac seemed better thought out and more advanced so I have never seriously considered switching. Mac makes me calm helping the work flow. Wintel makes me compute. But, thats me. For my part, I made a good living on those who bought into the Microsoft unity-at-any-price pitch with Intel stuff, and made a good living on those who did not buy into it with Mac stuff. It usually seemed to me that most folks insisting on Intel/MS systems were buying for the wrong reasons, but then who am I to argue with a paying customer at the cash register? As a Mac partisan, I have allowed myself to entertain some degree of credibility to the constant and increasingly strident rumors of Microsoft market place misbehavior. But, I'm pretty easy going and have remained calm, as long as I continue to have the latest Mac type innovations and toys. ("There 'll always be a Mac" , "The computer for the rest of us", etc. ...) Lately though I have begun to worry. What I have been hearing involving Microsoft has started to alarm me: Vulnerability to change. Forced migrations. Predatory pricing. Fear of Netscape as a substitute OS. Fear of Java making OS and program writing platform dominance irrelevant. Marketing intimidation. Selective feature releases. Secret contracts. Veiled threats. Hidden advantages for the home team. Stolen code. Possible sabotage. Monopolistic arrogance. End-runs around the courts to the public. Internet access rigging. Broken promises to regulators. ... Shareholders tend to be all too partisan toward their investments, often to the point of being defensive. I will admit that as a Mac person, I sometimes have a tendency to read too much into unflattering Microsoft rumors. But, that does not mean that there may not be something of concern to Microsoft shareholders in recent events. I see a lot of Sherman Anti-Trust smoke rising here. While I do not yet see a fire, I can certainly sense a great deal of heat coming out of the haze. We will know more later this week. In the mean time, why not encourage Bill Gates to de-escalate this critical situation. Vanderbuilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller did it differently. Do like J. P. Morgan did by saying: " I'll have my guy meet quietly with your guy". Or as posted earlier "Give a little. Get a lot." Microsoft has a good thing going. Why risk it by publicly backing regulators into a corner? HR