Re: ``Nothing like a monopoly to get investors to cheer you on''

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

--- From a message sent by Brett Glass on 11/7/98 9:41 PM ---

>I don't know. However, Linux may (inadvertently) make Microsoft MORE
>of a darling of stock analysts. Why? Because Linux will prevent any new
>commercial operating system -- such as BeOS -- from being able to compete
>with Microsoft's offerings. Linux will compete with them for developer
>mindshare, for sales, and for capital. The result: Microsoft's position
>as the ONLY viable commercial option will -- perversely -- be strengthened.
>Linux will kill off potential competition for it.

Honestly Brett, all this certainty... I'm a big promoter of commercial 
alternatives, but I can't see Linux hurting these markets. 

The "fixed pie" analogy simply doesn't fit. At the moment, the public is 
fixated on the idea that the marketplace must be "standardized" -- a very 
favorable mind set for a monopolizer like Microsoft. The more the 
"benefits" of proprietary standardization are demonstrated to be 
fallacious, the more difficult it will be for Microsoft to convince the 
buying public that they're the only way to go. As far as I'm concerned, 
every alternative cracks that wall.

Mitch Stone
mstone@vc.net