Text 1625, 176 rader
Skriven 2006-06-03 22:53:00 av Robert E Starr JR (2071.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Atheists: America's m
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* * * This message was from Josh Hill to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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@MSGID: <nfh482pbp6knf8cvfdpjkh2g5qju85827c@4ax.com>
@REPLY: <6Jqdna7aNJWSd-fZRVn-og@comcast.com>
On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 21:59:16 +0000 (UTC), "Carl" <cengman7@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote in message 
>news:qqr3821ualm6smqro3k4cqso85i6tbv0t0@4ax.com...
>> On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 13:12:42 +0000 (UTC), Paul Harper <paul@harper.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 12:37:40 +0000 (UTC), "John W. Kennedy"
>>><jwkenne@attglobal.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>Carl wrote:
>>>>> "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne@attglobal.net> wrote in message
>>>>> news:yI7gg.3677$n91.1519@fe09.lga...
>>>>>> Carl wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yeah, Gates has been too busy giving $29 Billion to charities and 
>>>>>>> trying
>>>>>>> to bring medicines to third world countries.  I can see where you'd 
>>>>>>> be
>>>>>>> looking for a 666  birthmark. :)
>>>>>> Bill Gates has, almost single-handedly, brought the entire software
>>>>>> industry to a screeching halt. He has ruined the careers of thousands, 
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> he has done it by repeated criminal acts, and by a completely lack of
>>>>>> personal and business ethics.
>>>>>
>>>>> Nonsense.
>>>>
>>>>Absolute truth. I've been in the business for over 40 years, and the
>>>>last ten have been absolutely stagnant.
>>>
>>>And I've been in it for 27 years and I have never been busier or so
>>>well compensated (and no, I don't work for Microsoft, or any software
>>>company for that matter).
>>>
>>>Have you considered the stagnation might be a rather more... local...
>>>problem?
>>
>> It isn't. Internet Explorer is an excellent example. When Netscape is
>> in business, the two companies released product after product, each
>> with loads of new features. But the moment Microsoft had succeeded at
>> driving Netscape out of business, they stopped all development. Not
>> only did they not develop or more likely steal (since I've never seen
>> them actually invent anything) any new features and technologies, they
>> ignored the new ones that appeared, such as tabbed browsing and RSS.
>> They even announced that Internet Explorer was a "mature technology"
>> that required no improvements.
>
>Why do you assume that MS is in the business of making a better browser for
>the sake of making a better browser?  There are hooks such that others
>made add-ins that would do new things and MS encouraged it.

Only because it had no competitive significance.

>If MS tries to make an OS (one of its core businesses) withmore features,
>they get slammed as being anti-competitive.

What they get criticized for is bundling apps and calling them part of
the OS to put competitors out of business. That they also get
criticized for failing to make improvements to their piece of crap
operating systems that don't improve the bottom line is well, right,
and inevitable.

> If they decide not to add 
>features
>to a non-core product, they're considered evil for that too.

Features aren't bundled apps. It's a pretty fair assessment.

>Quite a set of standards that have been set up. Damned if they do,
>damned if they don't.

They're damned if they break the law, and all the evidence -- the
memos, court decision after court decision here and abroad -- says
that they have, repeatedly. They're criminals, pure and simple, who
bully their competitors. Judge Jackson, a Reagan appointee who wasn't
exactly given to anti-business attitudes, compared them to thugs. Just
about everyone who's dealt with them says the same thing.

One of numerous examples -- read between the lines:

February 23, 1995

                                                Via facsimile
Michael Spindler
Office of the President & CEO
Apple Computer, Inc.
10431 North De Anza Blvd., MS 38A
Cupertino, CA  95014

Dear Mike,

<snip>

Only yesterday did we see the February 13 letter from Mr. Stead to
Judge Sporkin.  Mr. Stead failed to provide a copy of the letter to
the DOJ or Microsoft.  In this letter Mr. Stead alleges that during
our January 13 meeting we threatened to discontinue our Macintosh 
software if you continued to develop OpenDoc.  This is also not true.
Our whole message during the meeting was about our commitment to the
Macintosh.  We did not suggest that Apple should drop OpenDoc or that
we would discontinue our Macintosh development.  We did say that, 
as we presently understand OpenDoc, it is not clear how we can support
it in our applications.  We asked that Mr. Nagel meet with Mr. Heinen
to see if OLE and OpenDoc can be brought closer together so that all
Macintosh ISVs who also develop for the Windows platform will be able 
to support both OpenDoc and OLE.  We believe this would be in the best
interest of the entire industry.  We feel that as presently defined
OpenDoc and OLE will have very little interoperability despite what
users have been lead to expect. 

<snip>

Best regards,

Bill Gates
Chairman & CEO
Michael Spindler
February 23, 1995

Note the illegal blackmail threats that he er, didn't make. Again,
typical of his behavior, as reported in court case after court case,
as reported in the Congressional hearings, as reported in books and
articles and personal accounts.

>> Then, when Firefox became popular, MS suddenly woke up and announced a
>> new version of IE. And so it goes in area after area. No one would
>> even dream of building a better word processor or spreadsheet now,
>> because they know that MS would use its monopoly position to drive
>> them out of business.
>
>OpenOffice is trying.  They have a ways to go, but they also have a lot
>of MS hating people that are a ready to go for them.

A tiny percentage, because it's very difficult to use anything but MS
software.

>> Software improvements have been left to niche
>> companies and public groups like Mozilla.
>
>That's great!  It allows the companies that are good at innovation to do it.
>So?

I said "niche." We need major apps, not just little shareware apps and
shady file sharing protocols.

>> Even Apple survived only because Microsoft found it legally
>> convenient to maintain the fiction of competition while it was being 
>> prosecuted.
>
>Yeah, those poor Apple people that decided they were going to close the 
>platform and keep hardware prices high.
>
>Apple wass a victim of itself as much as anything else.

They made many other mistakes as well, e.g. putting resources into the
Newton instead of a multitasking OS. But that has no bearing on
Microsoft's behavior.

-- 
Josh

"I'm not going to play like I've been a person who's spent hours involved with
foreign policy.
I am who I am." - George W. Bush
   
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