Re: uninstallation

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

In reply to Christopher Pall's message sent 1/25/98 9:29 AM:

>I see what you are getting at, Apple hasn't been "the best" for the 
>purposes of
>encouraging competition in the computer industry. I mean, it would be 
>really hard to
>say, there will be no more IBM clones in the computer industry anymore. 
>But with Apple,
>they have that power. It's a good point... Apple doesn't do much to encourage
>competition in that regard.

I honestly think we make this much more complicated than necessary. Every 
player in an industry makes it more competitive, by definition. The 
question of what technology is open and proprietary and what is not would 
be irrelevant were it not for the fact that one company owns 90% of the 
market. What's odd is that we're apparently struggling with the concept 
of accepting them as the unchallenged owner of essential standards, and 
trying to find a way for this situation to "work." I submit that this a 
wholly unnatural state of affairs. I vote emphatically against accepting 
this. I vote with my wallet.

To put it even more bluntly, we cannot anoint any proprietary system as 
the "standard" and expect to retain our freedom of choice AND an 
unregulated marketplace. Outside of effectively turning Microsoft into a 
public utility, it simply cannot be done. All other scenarios amount to 
consumer suicide. I vote against that, too.

   Mitch Stone
+---
   Editor, Boycott Microsoft ** http://www.vcnet.com/bms 

   If the price seems too good to be true, it generally is.
                                 -- Jim Lowe, Microsoft attorney