Re[2]: [Am-info] 'Big Guns' Weigh In On Microsoft Case

[Gene Gaines]

John Poltorak and Mitch Stone,

Well said.  (below)

Gene
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com

On Tuesday, January 29, 2002, 4:50:37 PM, John Poltorak wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 12:57:44PM -0800, Mitch Stone wrote:
>> --- From a message sent by Sujal Shah on 1/28/02 4:30 PM ---
>> 
>> >> Excuse me, exactly when was Windows declared "standard?"  Like the 
>> >> meter, the
>> >> kilogram, the degree fahrenheit, etc ...?
>> >>
>> >
>> >Another response to ACT might be, "That's the point, stupid."  The 
>> >entire point is to damage (destroy is too strong for an objective 
>> >remedy) the Windows standard, precisely because it isn't a "standard," 
>> >but a monopoly maintained through illegal means.  The point of the case 
>> >is that the "standard" might have crumbled if consumers were allowed to 
>> >have a choice in their operating systems and related software.
>> 
>> How can anyone in sound mind, and with a straight face, characterize 
>> competition as the problem and not the solution? I've been puzzling over 
>> this one for years. It's tempting, but too easy, to chalk up these 
>> comments as the scripted remarks of paid Microsoft shills. These 
>> otherwise intelligent people must somehow have come to believe that 
>> competitive markets are not relevant in this instance -- that a 
>> proprietary commercial product can be called a "standard" without it also 
>> being called a monopoly.

> This is the huge hurdle that we are up against. Most people do see Windows 
> as the standard, but fail to grasp that it is a proprietary 'standard' 
> controlled and changed at the whim of its owner to not only suppress any 
> potential competitor, but to leverage its monopoly position in the desktop 
> operating system and applications market, into new markets, viz the 
> browser and network OS markets. Both Nescape and Novell were the principal 
> players there and where are they now?  Increasingly, Microsoft is taking 
> over the Internet by foisting its own standards everywhere so that people 
> are finding it increasingly difficult to take full advantage of available 
> facilities without the use of Internet Explorer.


 
>>  Mitch Stone  
>>  mitch@accidentalexpert.com




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