[Random-bits] Ryan Tate: Ballmer Sticks it to Uncle Sam

[James Love]

http://www.upside.com/Executive_Briefing/

Ballmer Sticks It To Uncle Sam 
By Ryan Tate 
January 14, 2000 

Get-Rich Tip: When you're in a hole, stop digging.  

Even as the government was sharpening its carving knives and drooling 
over the image of fresh-fried Microsoft (MSFT) drumsticks in a bucket, 
newly appointed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer -- never modest when it comes 
to describing how important a united Microsoft is to This Great Land Of 
Ours™ -- still couldn't get out of Uncle Sam's face. And it wasn't 
just that he called the government's widely reported breakup plans 
"reckless beyond belief" at a Thursday afternoon press conference.  

No, the real spittle-on-the-umpire's-cheek was Ballmer's enthusiastic 
description of the ominously Borg-sounding "next generation Windows 
services," which are really just Microsoft's effort to create more 
Web-based applications like Hotmail. Or are they? In a conference call 
with reporters Thursday, Ballmer said the services technology "will be 
integrated into Windows the client and into Windows the server... we see 
it being infused in and seamlessly integrated with Windows."  

Wow. Never mind that "Windows the client" and Windows the server" used to 
be four separate products -- Windows 95 and Internet Explorer, Windows NT 
and Internet Information Server -- before Microsoft got stir-happy and 
started puttin' da lime in da coconut. No, what's truly striking is that 
Microsoft is talking about extending this sort of integration to Web 
apps. Imagine a Hotmail that only really works for Windows 2000 users, or 
a Web calendar "free" to Windows CE users but useless to Palm Piloteers, 
or an Expedia with popup discount notices for Windows notebook owners but 
not Apple iBook owners.  

Considering that the mere act of rolling the browser into the OS prompted 
a federal antitrust suit that still threatens to split up the company, it 
takes some cojones to then take on hundreds of Web-app-based startups 
whose CEOs are likely dialing their lobbyists with maniacal fervor as we 
speak, plotting the release of Antitrust Suit 2001.