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Microsoft Case Slogs Forward
jchristopher writes "The government asked an appeals court to issue an order moving the Microsoft case back to the trial court as soon as possible today. According to this Cnet article, such an order could hint at an injunction blocking the distribution of Microsoft's Windows XP. "
Thank you! I'm glad someone besides me finally said that. I am extremely pro-business and extremely conservative, but I've spent the last five years now working on The Microsoft Boycott Campaign. Look how many conservatives are working with Ms opposition groups. Bob Dole and Robert Bork?? AND Ralph Nader. Considering that, who can still actually believe only liberal anti-business people oppose The Behemoth? Microsoft is a threat to you no matter where you are politically - a company that doesn't care about consumers or competition one bit. It's like cancer or some other deadly disease - you don't have to have any certain political viewpoint to be against it.
== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====
Only on Slashdot can the government/justice system be the savior of humanity in one thread (when it is beating up on Microsoft) and the demon bane of all things good in another (the CDA of days gone by, the SS and SJG, the RIAA/MPAA rulings, etc).
/. who post as they do no doubt due to the need to feel like they belong to something (eek, JonKatz alert), it would be a VERY BAD THING for industry.
It has been summed up a THOUSAND times before by people with more knowledge of the subject than I have (I am but a student, and though I have followed the personal computer industry for 10 years or so, I have never been involved in any corporate decisionmaking so I can't really speak with authority on why businesses choose one thing over another), notably Dan Heskett, whose posts I read regularly simply because he seems to be one of the few voices of reason in most of these Microsoft threads.
Anyway, here's the deal:
Microsoft is here to stay. That cannot be argued. If the government stepped in and clubbed Microsoft like a baby seal until they were little more than a pool of blood on the floor, it may please the endless drones of "GO LUNIX M$ SUX!" people on
If you create a company, what do you want, what is the American way: create company from nothing, build it up to huge levels, make $millions. People don't create companies to serve humanity. Microsoft may do things that are bad for consumers.
BOO-FUCKING-HOO.
Listen, it's "bad for consumers" that Adobe charges $500 or $600 or whatever it is these days for Photoshop. It's "bad for consumers" that Mercedes charges $55,000 for an automobile. The NERVE of those companies! It doesn't cost them that much to make the product!
Economics 101: Good things cost money to make. For the *vast, vast, vast* majority of people in the computer industry, writing open source software is good for little more than a warm happy feeling in your belly due to knowing that you did something good to help out other people. There's a reason Adobe Photoshop is 700 times the program that any OSS alternative is (you GIMP weenies can burn in hell, I'm not even an advanced user and even I can tell it crumbles and dies next to Photoshop for advanced tasks) and it's because they charge so much money for the software that they can afford to spend money on real research and top employees.
Look at Microsoft's R&D budget. It is absolutely *outrageous*. They don't use all that money researching new ways to dominate the world, kids: believe it or not, MS has and is doing some great things. I bet half of you out there posting on your l33t linux boxes are using a Microsoft mouse or a Microsoft keyboard. Why? Because when compared to other products in their price point, they absolutely dominate all ass.
Yes, you can buy better keyboards. You can probably buy better mice too (though I've never seen them), but you sure as hell can't for the $40 one will typically run you from MS. And it sure as hell won't be as well supported.
So software companies have a right to make money, have a right to do so however they see fit. Consumers be damned: in a free market, if the consumers get fucked, they fuck the company right back. That's the way the market works.
ANTITRUST = MONOPOLY PROTECTION, **NOT** blanket consumer protection!
If I create a company tomorrow and say that I will shine your shoes for $800, that is outrageous, it is bad for consumers, but the market will kick my ass because there are alternate ways to get your shoes shined, and shoe shining isn't even a necessity to begin with.
The people who think that the government might try to block release of WinXP are quite frankly suffering from dementia, hysteria, or are just plain on crack.
Doesn't anyone here read the financial news or watch CNN or FoxNews financial reports? The government is trying to expedite things because Microsoft has been in settlement talks with some of the States who've filed suit. Arizona (or was it New Mexico? I think Arizona) has already withdrawn itself from the suit.
The fact is that the MS case is waning, and the world at large just wants to get it over with "for the sake of the [stock] market". A few geeks like us who hate Microsoft, and a few competitors who *really* hate Microsoft, do not make up for all the ordinary people who use Microsoft products at home and work every day, and who see it as just a benign thing on their computer that helps them do stuff.
Like it or not, face it: the Court of Appeals has basically said that MS will not get broken up. Sure, their reasoning for remand was that Jackson misbehaved, but in reality do you think the next judge is going to order a break-up after the prior Appeals Court Smack-Down? Fuck no. Microsoft will get some injunctions handed to it not to engage in certain anti-competitive practices, such as forbidding OEMs from installing software (like AOL--you know AOL will make deals with big OEMs to get on the WinXP desktop, since their dealings with MS have crumbled), get a few fines, and that will be the end of it.
None of it will affect you or I or Microsoft even. The game is nearly over, and like it or not, even though Microsoft lost, they won--in that they will not be broken up, and they will most likely receive a little slap on the wrist now that the new DOJ and some of the States have changed tune.
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."--Tacitus, *The Annals*
PC makers have identified XP as a key factor for breathing new life into stalled PC sales.
"We are hoping for and preparing for a jump in the (PC sales) category with the launch of XP,"
Has the general computer using population been brainwashed into thinking they have to buy a new PC to run a new operating system?
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Given the Bush administration, and the perception that the administratioon is pro business, this is an interesting development, bound to put the MS drawers into a twist.
While I'm not speaking specifically with regard to the Bush Administration's position, in general it is a poor assumption to equate "pro business" with "pro Microsoft." Indeed, there are lots of pro business folks out there who believe that business in the computer industry would do a whole lot better without the bullying monopolistic tactics of Microsoft.
-Rob
It would give them time to work on SP1.
As a capitalist kinda guy, I don't mind a company leveraging their strengths. As a tech guy, I dislike how MS has forced various stuff down consumers' throats.
What I really, really HATE, though, is the complete buy-in of corporate IT/IS drones into MS. As a co-worker likes to tell me, MS was good at one point to solidify standards (back in the '80s). But we have progressed now to the point where we have standards bodies who can give us standards. For example, MS XP will be the first MS OS with an OSI standard TCP/IP stack? This took how many years? Also, all these corporate wankers deciding that MS is the best route? Come on, has there been a study where the MS OS route has resulted in a lower cost for support. Not that I've seen.
Overall, I don't really blame MS, I (now) blame all the lemmings who follow "the group" when it comes to anything relating to computers.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Actually it is a very possible step. The appeals court agreed with the fact that Microsoft acted illegally. They just disagreed with the punishment. It is entirely possible that the next judge will decide that XP has to wait until it is decided what the punishment will be and if XP is more of the same behavior. You all keep forgetting one thing, Microsoft has been found guilty. They don't have the right to continue business as normal. A judge could conceivably decide to ban all introduction of new products from them until this case is settled. It wouldn't necessarily imply prejudice just an awareness of the importance of the outcome of this trial.
"If there is nothing you are willing to die for, then you are not really alive." Myself
XP is not going to pull the Big 4 out of the PC sales doldrums. The reason PC sales have fallen off is 2 fold. We have a softening economy (DOH!) and the current crop of PCs are so very powerful and so very cheap that consumers don't want/need to upgrade to new machines. An Athlon 1200 based system for ~$750 WITH a 17" monitor and 128 MB of RAM? What possible application could a potential PC buyer have that needs more power than that? The problem is one of economics. If the PC is selling for 1/2 the price it was 2 years ago, then the manufacturer has to sell twice as many units to maintain sales volume in dollars. With the markup being so competitive there is the same or LESS percentage of profit in each unit. How long can you make money manufacturing the same product for the 1/2 the price and having to sell twice as many of them, and all the while each sale requires the same manpower to build, test and then TECH SUPPORT each unit? This is a recipe for financial ruin that all PC makers are struggling against. XP does not change any of this, particularly since MS will be selling XP to be installed on existing systems. No chance that they will insist it can only be purchased with a new system. The possibility that the DOJ is going to seek an injunction against the sale of XP as a remedy for past actions by MS may well send shock waves through the PC industry, but even if the Federal Government were PROMOTING the purchase of XP with tax incentives (XP purchase cost tax deductable to consumers?) This would NOT cause a stampede to buy new PCs. Thus "rescuing" PC builders in the 4th Quarter.