Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
Was the ruling too hard on Microsoft? Plus: Is David Duke right about immigration? Housekeepers need jobs, not middle-class guilt.
Apr 7, 2000 | Citizen Gates
BY SEAN ELDER
(04/05/00)
Bill Gates didn't finish college. Perhaps if he had had a more rounded and in-depth education he would have realized the ultimate consequences of his policies on Microsoft. John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie fought this battle nearly a 100 years ago in the era of Teddy Roosevelt and lost. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
-- Ray C. Haselby
Not once, never, have I ever considered the browser and Windows operating system to be a single, integrated product. I prefer Internet Explorer as a browser, but would be able to use Netscape Navigator if I so wished.
I, for one, appreciate the functional integration that Microsoft brings to the market. I am an ardent admirer of trust busting and judicial "reining in" of anti-competitive practices, but in this instance the Department of Justice has simply failed to prove its case.
-- Randy Smith
In case you didn't notice, Bill Gates just gave the Clinton administration a spanking. The announcement of the antitrust verdict triggered a massive sell-off of Microsoft stock which caused the entire tech sector to slide. The message: What's good for Microsoft is good for the economy, and what's bad for Microsoft is bad for the economy. At lunchtime on April 3 they were looking at a new stock market crash and the end of the Clinton administration. Somewhere a deal was struck. Perhaps the headline "Microsoft appeal on fast track" has something to do with it. Someone right at about 12:50 Pacific Time, (look at the graph for Microsoft stock price for April 3) began a massive buyback, which then pushed the tech sector and so the market up again.
Gates may have lost a few billion in the deal, and millions of people are hurting right now, but the point was made. If Gates is going down, he can take Clinton with him.
-- Paul C. Cowan
Break up? Make up? Appeal?
SALON TECHNOLOGY STAFF REPORT
(04/03/00)
Impressive, you've shown your bias well. The only pro-Microsoft viewpoint you had is from Steve Ballmer. I'm disappointed that the negative consequences of a Microsoft breakup are never aired. If Microsoft is split up, it will be much harder to get software that runs well with other software. Your computer will crash more since it will be harder to integrate products, and development costs will skyrocket as developers have to create software for multiple platforms. One big reason there is so much choice today is because there's really only one operating system.
Lotus, Borland, Oracle and Netscape aren't dying because they were crushed, it's because they once offered superior software and refused to improve it once passed by Microsoft. They refuse to improve their products, so is it any wonder Microsoft beat them? By all means, punish the company for success. I'm planning on suing Oracle for having newer technology than an abacus; if I get the same judge, I think I'll win.
-- Stefan Krzywicki
When all is said and done, the outcome of the Microsoft antitrust trial may mean little to users. They don't necessarily care about who makes the software that runs their personal computers. They are more concerned about how easy or how hard it is to do things using their computers. Unfortunately, that's where we've served consumers badly.
We don't ask people to learn engineering to drive a car. Why is it, then, that we ask users to become "computer literate" if they want to use a personal computer?
-- David P. Graf
Get Salon in your mailbox!