Re: How Much Has Bill Overcharged America?

[Paul Ingels <ingelsp@initco.net>]

  Scott,
  The problem comes when "management" tells the IS department what to buy. 
  That is usually based on high level business decisions or on the old "I
  run it at Home" syndrom.  That is usually justified (incorrectly) with "I
  won't have to learn something else, therefore I will be more productive" 
  A good example of this can be seen at:
  http://www.aberdeen.com/secure/onsite/case1/body.htm
  Note that this is posted on the company server too.
  
  Cost of ownership is a real big one that management preachs, but doesn't
  live by.  MSIE is a good example.  I work in the IS department of a 1700
  user MAN.  We have spent almost $1M on firewall systems so you know
  security is important to us.  Had we gone with MSIE with the release of
  3.0, we'd have had to reload it on those 1700 computers when 3.01 came
  out, again when 3.02 came out, and now with 4.?.  3.0, 3.01, and 4.0 all
  have security glitches.  Yes the program is free, but to maintain it cost
  thousands in manhours.  Netscape has had one glitch in that same time
  frame (infact, it has only had one - not counting beta copies).
  
  Also, we have 32 servers running Novell.  There have been 0 AFCERT's
  (security warnings) on Novell.  There is almost 1 a month on NT or MSIE. 
  Reloading NT on 32 (or more, because NT requires more servers) would mean
  my people wouldn't have time to do anything else BUT load NT patches. 
  Again, cost or ownership is very high with NT.
  
  Paul Ingels
  
  Scott K. McGrath wrote:
  > 
  > >So how much has Bill Gates overcharged America so far?
  > 
  > That's an irrelevant number.  Professionals pick software based on two criteria
  > which are both at level 1.  Functionality (will it do what I want it to do?) and
  > Return on Investment (Will I make money by using it.)
  > 
  > If it will do what I want but costs so bleeding much that I won't make money, I
  > won't buy it.  If it won't do what I want but is -cheap-, I won't buy it.
  > 
  > Home users generally don't buy s/w.  They buy a PC and use what's on there
  > because it's already there.  Mostly if they buy, they buy games or financial
  > s/w.
  > 
  > Scott K. McGrath
  > mcgrats@ix.netcom.com
  > 
  > charles mueller wrote:
  > 
  > >         Pieter Nagel has raised a super question:  "The majority of consumer
  > > software is vastly OVERPRICED."  By how much?
  > >
  > >         It's a critical question in antitrust.  Monopolies overcharge.
  > > Important monopolies overcharge a lot.  The size of the overcharge tells the
  > > court how important this particular monopoly is.  If it's small change--de
  > > minimis, in legal lingo--don't sweat it.  If it's big bucks, maybe we need
  > > to do something about it.
  > >
  > >         The overcharge is the measure of "damages" in antitrust--the
  > > magnitude of the injury to the consuming public at large or, in the case of
  > > a private plaintiff who's had no choice but to buy from a monopolist for
  > > years, how much has been stolen from him.  The lawyers know the judge is
  > > going to ask them, "Okay, before you take up too much of my time here, how
  > > many dollars are involved?"  The overcharge is number he wants.
  > >
  > >         So how much has Bill Gates overcharged America so far?
  > >
  > >         Charles Mueller, Editor
  > >         ANTITRUST LAW & ECONOMICS REVIEW
  > >         http://webpages.metrolink.net/~cmueller
  > >
  > >                                                   **************
  > >
  > > At 08:42 AM 11/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
  > > >On Fri, 21 Nov 1997, Luc-Etienne Brachotte wrote:
  > > >
  > > >> 3 keywords : Microsoft, blessing, inexpensive. (and "easier" also)
  > > >
  > > >Microsoft kan not possible be inexpensive if it made millionairres
  > > >out of so many of its employees. I am of the opinion that the
  > > >majority of consumer software is still vastly overpriced.
  > > >
  > > >     ,_
  > > >     /_)              /| /
  > > >    /   i e t e r    / |/ a g e l
  > > >
  > > >