[Am-info] Gateway Official Hits Microsoft Licensing In Testimony

[ethical@1of1.net]

In a message dated 2002 March 26 (Tuesday), timestamp 01:21 PM, 
   on the topic Re: [Am-info] Gateway Official Hits Microsoft
Licensing In Testimony,
   John Poltorak <jp@eyup.org> wrote:

"|Don't expect anything from the courts.

I am not yet giving up on the courts.  The least likely court of all
(packed by Reagan ans a priority item on his agenda "to get the
government off our backs"), the US Court of Appeals for the DC
Circuit, showed, en banc and unanimously, that it "gets it."  I am
much more worried about prosecutors with feet of clay.  The strongest
"champions" out there -- the nine non-settlement states -- are asking
for a remedy (modular Windows) that seems best suited to _entrench_ a
(smaller but still proprietary) Windows rather than opening a window
(no pun intended) to displace it.  Their remedies all go to the
applications and add-on layer -- applications to run on Windows,
add-ons and plug-ins for Windows. 


"|You, waiting for George W Bush to drop by and ask your opinion about
"| Microsoft is not going to be particularly effective IMV ;-)....

A different result in November 2000 undoubtedly would have yielded a
different posture in the Microsoft litigation. 

"|It needs a big company with lots of $$$ to go lobbying in
"|Washington, or even the Anti-capitalist mob realising that Microsoft
"|is a bigger demon  that Macdonalds or Nike and going round smashing
"|every computer with  Windows installed, to get the msg across.

At least as long as we have this administration in Washington, we will
see no effective initiative from the federal government.  And any
publicly traded company owes it to its shareholders not to tilt at the
Microsoft windmill:  the rate of return on investment is too low and
too uncertain. 

The change will come, bowever, when the Great Disaster hits:  the
ultimate virus that rages across the entire Windows code monoculture
and creates the equivalent of the 1930s Dust Bowl on Windows
installations worldwide.  Especially if it temporarily disables our
military defense infrastructure, you will see an overnight change in
attitude. 


-- 
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