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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: I Am John Galt who wrote (377)	7/1/1998 4:29:00 PM
From: MeDroogies	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13060

The object of the DOJ's fervor can only be BECAUSE of the OS that they are able to bundle these products and integrate them so tightly. They can focus on MSIE, but the net result is they are saying "your OS is too prevalent and you are using its prevalence to foist your goods on unsuspecting consumers". Remember the original agreement MSFT signed? It was designed to restrict these bundling arrangements, and to separate the OS from the apps. Problem is, you really can't. It doesn't matter what apps you buy, they are designed for a specific OS. If MSFT controls the OS, they effectively control the apps market... I didn't read the US News article for several reasons...1. I don't like the magazine. It's a poor substitute for The Economist. 2.I don't think the former CEO of IBM wants to admit that his vision was poor and that he missed the market. Kind've an ego thing. Better to look good and say "the nasty DOJ demoralized me and the company" or some such. It makes him look like a martyr, rather than lacking vision. As for your question with regard to "buying" Netscape...I have never bought it...I always downloaded for free...even when it was supposedly for sale, you could download it for free. Today it really is free....I just downloaded the latest version and ran it vs. IE. IE sucks (what would you expect?). Oh yeah, as for marketing...I'll let you in on a couple little secrets that only a few MIS people know about. 1. Win95 IS NOT completely Y2K compliant (oops!) DESPITE their PR otherwise. Several service packs are forthcoming (have to pay for them, though). 2. I had a company give an interactive presentation for me. They ran their product over top of IE (so they said). It looked great...then the Netscape logo popped up. Turns out, they wanted to use IE, but it wasn't capable of doing everything it claimed. However, they'd signed a contract with MSFT and had to use it, so they ran IE over top of Netscape (don't ask me HOW!) so they could have full functionality, without having to wait for the fix (which they had to pay for). Seems they suckered themselves into the MSFT marketing pitch...like zillions of others. 3. Marketing is everything in software. Once you make the sale, it is too tough for the buyer to back out. Money has been spent, and buyers tend to throw good money after bad. It's what made MSFT rich. Most MIS people will nod when they hear that...they've all experienced it. And why does MSFT marketing work so well? It all ties in to the OS...............................................