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

To: Andy Thomas who wrote (8359)	6/9/1998 5:41:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Andy, Thank you for a response with some substance. If MSFT was a computer company your statement about API's carrying "warning labels" would be an easy one to defend. The problem, however, circles back to the PC as an off- the-shelf product, owned by no one. The expectation for the PC has always been that it was open to as many appl. developers as cared to write programs to run on it. Early on, such was the case. MSFT, however, is in a very touchy position as the OS vendor of choice, as selected by IBM from the beginning. They have a RESPONSIBILITY to publish the OS specs completely and fully in order to allow 3rd party developers to flourish. They can make money licensing the OS. However, their unholy alliance between OS & appl. groups @MSFT makes them suspect of any hiding of apis, especially when they benefit the corp. as a whole & put appl. vendors out of business. When this happens, the Feds are going to hear about it and be all over you like glue. Scott McNealy recently said that MSFT should be forced to open up their OS to the public or be busted up. The DOJ is listening....