Re: Hatch wants Gates back

[ericb@pobox.com (Eric Bennett)]

>On Sun, 19 Jul 1998, Mitch Stone wrote:
>>
>> >From "hear no evil-speak no evil" to futility -- not much progress there.
>> Still, I see little or no discussion, even in the industry press, on the
>> implications of Microsoft's spreading monopoly.
>>
>You haven't been reading the stories. I think one newsmagazine devoted
>seven pages to these implications, including a list of companies MS bought
>or bought a controlling interest in. Newsweek had that great picture of
>Gates as octopus with accompanying article...
>
>-Declan

Time certainly touched on the implications as well:
http://www.pathfinder.com/@@O0mo8gYAKTH5aGC4/time/magazine/1997/dom/971103/b
usiness.will_reno_bra.html

Excerpt:
=====
But if the Net really is tomorrow's indispensable info appliance, and if
Microsoft manages to merge the software that takes us there into Windows, the
results will be dramatic. Suppose that, say, five years from now 98% of the
world's computers run Windows 2001 (the only holdouts being aging potheads still
designing really cool fractal algorithms on Macs). And suppose Gates, hoping to
become the world's leading media titan, stops letting entertainment that
Microsoft doesn't control be accessed by Windows machines.

Unthinkably evil, you say? Well, he's already taken a tentative step in that
direction. Try to access Microsoft's popular online gaming site, the Zone, using
Netscape's browser or a Mac machine for a taste of the power Gates could
eventually wield. "We're sorry," reads the otherwise blank page. "The new Zone
doesn't currently support Microsoft Windows 3.x; or Apple Macintosh or Unix (R)
operating systems, or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 2.0 or Netscape
Navigator browsers." Resistance is futile.

Stunts like this are why even many Silicon Valley libertarians secretly hope
Justice reins in Gates before it's too late.
=====




--
Eric Bennett, http://www.pobox.com/~ericb , Cornell Biochemistry Dept.

We don't think we should have to ask permission [from Microsoft] every
time we want to make some minor software modification.  Windows is an
operating system, not a religion.
-Ted Waitt, Chairman, Gateway 2000, Inc.