[Am-info] New Apple store near Beantown

[Mitch Stone]

--- From a message sent by Joe Moore on 12/17/01 1:14 PM ---

>> So, what you're saying is, Mac users would be better off if Microsoft did 
>> not offer Office and its other products for the Mac platform?
>
>Mac users would be better off if Microsoft did not use "porting Office
>to MacOS" as a lever to prevent Apple's potential attacks on MS's monopoly.

I'd agree with you 100% if I saw any evidence of this occuring.
 
>> >And with Internet Explorer, should one *not* choose a 
>> >different browser, Mac users will get sucked more and more
>> >into the MS proprietary websites.  Dunno, maybe many 
>> >already are.  Once addicted, the leap to Passport, .NET and
>> >subscription services will an easier step.  Hold on to your
>> >wallet!
>> 
>> Please explain this argument. I really don't understand it.
>
>The Microsoft Conspiracy Theorists propose that Internet Explorer leads
>to proprietary HTML extensions and websites that check the browser 
>information
>sent by the user's browser, which in turn leads to web sites that are
>inaccessible to users of "alternative" browsers.  This, in turn leads to
>a drop in the number of "alternative" browser users, which leads more web
>site operators to de-emphasize support for "alternative" browsers.  Once
>these web sites aren't concerned about supporting anything other than IE,
>it becomes easier for them to move to IE-only (or more accurately 
>Windows-only)
>features: ActiveX controls, FrontPage server extensions (and therefore 
>Windows
>on the servers); which means Passport authentication and digital wallet info;
>.NET client-server applications; and on-demand application delivery from
>Microsoft Software subscriptions.
>
>In a way, it's a worst-case scenario of the browser "network effects", but
>given Microsoft's history of exploiting OS network effects, or application
>suite network effects, it's not particularly unrealistic.

Microsoft doesn't need the Mac's 5% market share to pull this off.


 Mitch Stone  
 mitch@accidentalexpert.com