Re: Uninstallation

["Glenn T. Livezey" <glivezey@netserv.unmc.edu>]

On Sun, 25 Jan 1998 14:12:27 -0500 (EST), Steve Cohen wrote:
>Subject: Re: uninstallation
>  You may be right .........................BIG SNIP
>But Microsoft isn't a hardware manufacturer (or much of one anyway. They do sell
>mice and keyboards, I suppose).  Microsoft did not make my computer.  Gateway
> 2000 did.

Not to sound insulting, but do you believe that because Exxon doesn't make cars
they "aren't in the automobile business"? MS and Intel are symbiotic parasites,
but the "host" is the enduser caught in the middle of their techno arms race.

>  I like my computer.  And yes, I want to have it all.  I want all the benefits of
>"standardization" but I want that standard to be fairly and honestly enforced and I 
>want fair competition among software vendors within that standard.  From that 
>perspective, urging me to buy a Macintosh is utterly irrelevant.
>This issue really goes beyond Microsoft.  If Apple were in the hegemonic position
>that Microsoft is today, I think we might be launching these same verbal assaults on
>them.

I agree with you wholeheartedly about how the industry open "standard" should
be arrived at and enforced - by market quality control and not coercive business
practices by the one company big enough to out bid the law and all wouldbe
competitors. But that perfect world needs some help in its development. And one place
to start is to support ANY reasonable alternative to the 900lb gorilla. This includes
Macs. And although I am most decidedly NOT a big Mac fan, I would hazard to guess
that "If Apple were in the hegemonic position that Microsoft is today" the odds of them
arriving and staying in that position by honest work and quality products are MUCH
HIGHER than by beating MS to the punch in the dirty tricks game. SOMETIMES the
good guys DO win, and on their own terms. Especially if the law is vigilant and 
powerful in its enforcement. It ain't often, but enough so that we know its possible.
Money and power are not always overwhelming corrupting influences, just very potent
temptations. The "devil made me do it" may work in the courtroom, but how many
just plain folks think we are all responsible for our own actions?



Glenn T. Livezey, Ph.D.
Director of Perinatal Research
Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Nebraska Medical Center
600 South 42nd Street
Omaha, NE 68198-3255
Phone- 402-559-8064
FAX- 402-559-7126
e-mail glivezey@netserv.unmc.edu