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

To: Mike Milde who wrote (12102)	11/6/1998 2:51:00 PM
From: DavidD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

>>Microsoft helps speed this process by releasing new word rocessors, spreadsheets, etc. that save files in formats that cannot be read with older versions of the same package. Users are then stuck with software they bought from Microsoft that no longer works with currently available Microsoft software. Upgrades are necessary to remain productive. The upgrades run slow on this "old" machine. Tech. support quickly fades away for the old software. The "fix" is to buy the latest version. People upgrade their computer about every three years. Boy did you hit the nail square on the head. On the one hand this is why MSFT has been (and will be?) such a great stock to own. On the other hand, I'm tired of hearing what a great capitalist success story MSFT is and how they benefit the consumer. They screw the consumer because they can. They can because they leverage their monopoly on the OS. This leverage means they can force upgrades with product that might not be the best in an open market. Did you read the halloween docs? ( opensource.org ) They might try and convert open standard protocols (for networking and internet communications), to proprietary standards by making them more complex. The intent would be to stop competing NOS's from developing products. This will not benefit the consumer. Choice benefits the consumer and drives innovation, not slows it. It wouldn't be possible without a monopoly on the desktop. And would keep MSFT's software the best seller regardless of quality.