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Sometimes, Microsoft is Right...
Now many many users of Slashdot have expressed their dislike for search services that order results based on cash, and many of us don't use IE, so the question comes up: why should we care about RealNames at all? Why does the failure of some poorly managed, ill-conceived company warrant any space on Slashdot? Alternative root servers make for a better story, no doubt. I'm the first to agree that RealNames deserves very little of your time, but the story of RealNames has recently taken a turn that is both annoying to me personally, and worrying to me as a long time participant in the open source scene.
Keith Teare, CEO of RealNames, has tried to make it seem like it was Microsoft's monopoly power that made RealNames go out of business. Lets review: RealNames had a deal with Microsoft to provide the RealNames service to MSN and Internet Explorer, for which they paid Microsoft a fee, and in return they got to derive revenue from selling the RealNames to companies, so basically Microsoft was likely RealNames' sole source of income. Keith and his coworkers were very happy to tie their horse to Microsoft while Microsoft was willing to pull them.
I don't need to explain to the Slashdot reader why RealNames was a poor idea. It is something you feel in your gut. I mean, in the end if you're going to accept the consensus reality that is the domain name system, are you going to stick with the somewhat broken NSI/ICANN/Pick-Your-Favorite-DNS company structure? Or are you going to go to a completly left field, poor, expensive excuse for NSI like RealNames? If you are a company trying to establish a web presence, do you choose the system that everyone has agreed on and publicize your url "http://www.bobstigerrentals.com" ? Or do you put: "RealName: Bob's Tiger Rentals" in your ads?
To illustrate further: Back in the day, I bought the linux.com domain name for the then-VA Research (Now VA Software) from Fred van Kempen (And there was much publicity, huzzah). Four or five months after doing this, I got a call from James Ash at RealNames trying to sell me the Linux RealName. This was not unusual, as I'd get any number of calls trying to sell me anything from containers full of stuffed penguins to whole companies (I was the wrong guy for those calls ...) What shocked me was the price he thought we'd pay. My mind remembers it as a horrible inverted Ron Popiel style sale, with none of the charm of Ron's products. How much would you pay to control the "Linux" RealName for four years? You'll be all over MSN and IE! $19.95? $29.95? $39.95? Try 1 million dollars.
It was a lot of money then, it's a lot of money now. It was a lot of money for any business. I told him we'd get back if we were interested. I didn't get back to him.
This is the innovation that Mr. Teare claims Microsoft squished, his right to overcharge for a dubious product. While Caveat Emptor certainly applied in the case of RealNames, his claim that Microsoft, somehow, has some duty to continue to provide the RealNames "service" to their browser client rings false. And that is the point of relating this bit of personal history.
I have little interest in engaging in schadenfreude over broken companies and laid off workers, but I do take issue with Keith Teare's attempt to jump on the anti-trust complainants bandwagon. If it is his hope that by crying foul on Microsoft now he can derive some sympathy or some other unknown gain, he'll have to look somewhere else than here on Slashdot, especially considering those that have a valid complaint against the software giant. Even considering recent developments I can't find any sympathy for him or his company, a company that, in my mind, belongs in the same class as LinuxONE (the California, not the Korean, company) and Digital Convergence.
Don't say that. Everytime you say that, somewhere an open-sourcer dies...
Hell must have just frozen over!
This is the statistical anomaly that will never happen again. M$ used their one "get to be right for free" card on knocking down realnames, so it's safe to assume they'll *never* *ever* be right again.
Satisfying, in a way.
Seriously, someone who can plant a story like this must be able to see them, right?
I guess you wouldn't mind if I got the rights to the Linux RealName then, eh?
;)
PayPal $$ if you sign up for free offers (eBay, cred cards, e
Um, that's what editors do. It's why they call things like this "editorials".
9. Beowulf clusters aren't so useful after all
8. IIS beats Apache in recent security audits
7. JonKatz reviews _______ in less than 1000 words
6. [Lucent | IBM | Intel] [invents | patents] [single molecule | [carbon | other element] nanotube | really small] [transistor | hard drive | computer] (wait... maybe we have seen that one before...)
5. CowboyNeal read this (marry me)!
4. 133t k1dd13z h4x0r3d /.
3. BeOS returns, outperforms Linux
2. Sometimes, Microsoft is right...
1. Bill Gates buys U.S. Supreme court, clears M$ of all charges.
Sometimes, Microsoft is Right...
Uh, Chris, did you forget again that the west coast viewers haven't seen the show yet?
Mulder: Dana, the cigarette smoking man told me something... Something important.
Scully: Fox, what is it?
Mulder: Microsoft was right.
Keith and his coworkers were very happy to tie their horse to Microsoft while Microsoft was willing to pull them.
Perhaps their first mistake was tying their horse to something in the hopes that it would get pulled...
Tastes like burning! - Ralph Wiggum
Microsoft finally being right about something is such a big story /. has a whole feature on it!!
I stole this Sig
Well there's always two things that hold true around here, most people with moderation points are idiots and /. is anti-Microsoft.
Wait, strike that, one thing...
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
Sometimes, Microsoft is Right... (Score:-1, Flamebait)
Since they were flogging a dead horse, the image is even funnier: the microsoft truck pulling a diseased corpse of a horse along, with RealNames execs walking behind, saying "Oooh, this is good".
graspee
But why would you want to go outside? If hell has frozen over, then surely Debian stable has been released, Mozilla has hit 1.0, Duke Nukem Forever is out, and you're probably putting off having sex with a supermodel to play with all that new software.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Penguins are evil creatures. Didn't you see Wallace and Gromit?
A CueCat makes a passable general purpose bar code reader with a little bit of work, and if you can't do that, at least you've still got a spiffy little flashlight. I can't see any such utility with RealNames.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas