Re: Antitrust and lock-in

["Etchison, Michael" <etchison@puc.texas.gov>]

	Mr. Reese " see[s] society's desirable philosophy ... shifting from a 
philosophy of freedom of choice to one of freedom from choice."
	But, of course, I wasn't writing about society's philosophy when I 
suggested that there were genuine, and substantial, consumer benefits 
from network effects/increasing returns which, at least in some 
situations, appeared to be intrinsic.  Having only one OS for PCs seems 
to me to be one of those situations.  Whatever my "social philosophy" 
about competition and so forth, the benefit to me of not having to search 
and decide among OSes is considerable, and (unless BillG is up to 
something much more sinister) worth putting up with a monopoly in.  
Reasonable folks may come to different assessments about that, of course; 
what is not reasonable, in my judgment, is to a) acknowledge that a 
particular situation is a genuine network effect/increasing returns 
situation, and b) insist that antitrust enforcers break it up.
Michael E. Etchison
etchison@puc.texas.gov
[opinions mine, not the PUCT's]