[Am-info] AOL in Negotiations to Buy Red Hat

[Mitch Stone]

--- From a message sent by Hans Reiser on 1/21/02 9:14 AM ---

>>I've always interpreted Gates' strategy for Microsoft as being more about 
>>control than money. As a former AOL customer, long before the merger, I 
>>
>
>I don't think he gives a damn about whether people watch porn, etc.  He 
>wants technical and monetary control, not moral control.

Technical control, yes, and adulation as a hero. I didn't say moral 
control.

>>
>>Not to belabor this point, but I think we make a mistake by trusting any 
>>of these scions of capitalism too far. They did not get where they are 
>>today by being nice guys. We've made a kind of Faustian bargain with 
>>them, which is okay, but only insofar as they have to continually look 
>>out for each other, and not get a clear shot at us. Given a hand full of 
>>aces, I doubt that any one of these tech moguls would behave much 
>>differently then Bill Gates has over the years.
>>
>I think that McNeally really is a nice guy.  Jobs has the virtue of 
>believing that his product should be insanely great (also a virtue, 
>though like many an artiste, he is willing to make everyone think he is 
>an asshole if it is needed when he demansds the quality level he wants). 
> AOL and MS don't really care about the quality of what they produce. 
> Ellison I don't know a lot about.

We've certainly seen the dark side of Scott McNealy. He professes rabid 
libertarianism when it suits his purposes, but lobbies the government 
when that suits his purposes. He has an ego that doesn't quit -- but 
then, they all do, especially Ellison.

Steve Jobs is a permanent enigma. From what I've seen, I think he's got 
something of a martyr complex. I may like most of what he's done, but he 
has definitely shown some megalomaniacal tendencies over the years, and 
I'd no more want him sitting on a throne then our known evil, Mr. Gates.

 Mitch Stone  
 mitch@accidentalexpert.com