Re: Supply and Demand

["Norm" <normanmo@clark.net>]

  On Wed, 26 Nov 1997 16:29:56 -0500 (EST), Mitch Stone wrote:
  
  >>     Allow me to play the 'devil's advocate' to the M$ position, if
  >>what they say about the other products is true why are they 'dumping'
  >>IE and why bother to fight the DOJ over whether or not it's bundled??? 
  >>If M$ was telling the truth (fat chance) everyone would *CHOOSE* to use
  >>IE so there'd be no need for all this fuss, but since that's not the
  >>case (ie. M$ is lying AGAIN) they're going to pull every dirty trick
  >>they can think of to force everyone to use it.  If everyone WANTED to
  >>use IE all this fuss over it would be moot.
  >
  >To someone who does not already subscribe to this view of events, it is 
  >an awfully hard sell. (Take my word for it.) The leveraging questions 
  >aside for the moment, it does appear at least superficially that Netscape 
  >engaged in nearly identical "dumping" tactics in order to promote 
  >Navigator. (Honestly, how many people actually pay for it?) The argument 
  >that all of their competitors were too weak to matter simply does not 
  >wash. This is a fundimental question, and it pays for us to have a clear 
  >answer.
  
       The OS leveraging aside???  It's impossible to remove that fact
  from the argument, it's what M$ is all about.
  
       That said I don't think it's fair to blame Netscape for society's
  poor ethics when it comes to registering software, and at the time
  almost every other browser was also available as a free download too.  
  But the fact *IS* that Netscape's browser is NOT free, so I'd say
  people's penchant for not registering software is a matter for their
  own conscience not Netscape's.  Would you feel better if Netscape had
  their lawyers chasing everyone who uses it without registering just
  like M$ would??
  
       I'm not saying Netscape was without sin.  I do believe that at the
  time Netscape was trying to use their marketshare to forge their own
  standards, but IMO that's a far cry from trying to steal content like
  M$ will.
  
   ...Cheers,
  
   ...Norm
  
  ***********************************************
  * Brought to you by OS/2 Warp v4.0 and PMMail *
  * For a copy of my PGP key send me a message  *
  * with "send pub_key" in the subject          *
  ***********************************************