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

To: rudedog who wrote (7765)	5/21/1998 7:54:00 AM
From: Big Kahuna	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

How about Unix/Linux as another choice of an OS for people? I'll admit I don't know so much about that platform, but from what I can see, Unix is a pretty popular OS, and in most cases, it's FREE to obtain. It's also curious that I have only seen Netscape Navigator in use on X-Windows as a browser. I don't think Microsoft makes an Internet Explorer for Unix. There are other choices for consumers but because Unix is somewhat of a "foreign language" to people raised on Windows and DOS, people do not want to consider that as another option. About the thing I can think of is some development would need to be done on a powerful "Office" type suite for Unix, but I don't see that as undoable.

To: rudedog who wrote (7765)	5/21/1998 10:49:00 AM
From: Carlos Blanco	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Re. MSFT & Compaq licensing terms. The facts you bring to the table are excellent and enlightening, but in a way you are playing right into Mr. Bearded One's hands by focusing on the specific event. What should be addressed is Mr. Bearded One's more general premise: that it is "bad" or "immoral" for Microsoft to exercise its property rights, even if such an exercise would cause a 3rd party like Compaq to (theoretically) become unprofitable in the future. In other words, Mr. Bearded One's implication is that Compaq's continued profitability is more "important" or "better" than the right of Microsoft to set and enforce the licensing terms for its intellectual property. He is, through a colorful mafia-esque (and backed by false facts, as you point out) depiction of the events, trying to instill a sense of outrage so that people don't actually bother to consider the logic and premise behind his case. Because once you're clouded with rage and a notion that Microsoft "is threatening to put Compaq out of business", then it's quite logical to demand that the government step in and prevent such an atrocity. In one stroke he has brilliantly turned an attempt to subvert/defend Microsoft's licensing rights into an excuse for government to step in and remove such rights. Oh, wait, I forgot. Property rights no longer apply to Microsoft at all, because they've made their product extremely desirable and successful and now have a very large share of the market (the word "monopoly" being the official substitute for the preceding terms, since it has a much more negative and emotional feel to it). Very interesting: the more successful you are in the marketplace, the less rights you have in terms of owning, licensing, and extending your product. Moral of this tale: when you get to 50% market share, stop interviewing for new employees, place output limits on your factories, and institute new performance review systems whereby people get pay cuts if they make the product any more desirable. --Carlos

To: rudedog who wrote (7765)	5/21/1998 1:22:00 PM
From: Bearded One	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

If the facts are as you state them then I am certainly incorrect in my statement about Microsoft threatening to put Compaq out of business. Until I hear otherwise, I will rephrase it as "threatened to put one of Compaq's lines out of production."

To: rudedog who wrote (7765)	5/21/1998 4:16:00 PM
From: Logos	Respond to of 74651

Thank you very much for that post. I was one of the people who thought Microsoft really was threatening Compaq with denial of Win 95 license. You're right about the way it was presented in the media, CNNFN presented it as an ultimatum from Micorosoft. Haz