Re: Intuit's CEO calls for 'OS neutrality

[Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>]

At 08:50 PM 12/30/98 -0500, Eric M. Bennett wrote:
 
>>"Calling for the government to impose "operating system neutrality" to
>>ensure fair and free industry competition, Intuit Inc.'s top executive
>>lambasted Microsoft Corp. for its business practices."
>>   ---------
>
>Well, this strikes me as a bit odd coming from a company that seems to
>enjoy dropping products for the only non-Microsoft operating system it
>'supports' (Mac OS).

Read what Harris wrote.

He addresses this point in his testimony at paragraph 24:

"Windows, the proprietary operating system developed by Microsoft,
now operates an overwhelming majority of the personal computers 
operating worldwide. I thus believe, and it is my experience, that
consumer software vendors such as Intuit have no practical choice
but to focus software product development primarily -- if not 
exclusively -- on software for use with Windows."

The full testimony can be found at

http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f2000/2055.pdf

and is well worth a read. The trade press has summarized it, at
best, and has neglected to discuss some of the strongest points.
For example, the press has failed to point out that browser
"componentization" was a relatively minor issue for Intuit, and
not a deal-breaker as Microsoft claimed. Financial software doesn't 
need to display HTML. It just needs to bring up Web pages for user 
support, registration, etc. -- this can be done via DDE with any 
browser. If you look at the way Intuit's software works with
Internet Explorer, it's easy to see this.

--Brett


Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a prior message, software vendors
have painted themselves into this particular "corner" by failing
to promote other environments. The availability of TurboTax and
Quicken for FreeBSD, Linux, and/or Be)S would clearly contribute 
greatly to users' confidence in moving away from Windows.

--Brett Glass