Slashdot Mirror
The Future of Innovation At Stake?
Neuropol writes "Next week, Microsoft will launch a challenge against the European Union's highest court. The European Commission will need to decide if they are to overturn the EU Court's 2004 Anti-Trust case ruling. Amid arguments over the usual suspects like Windows Media Player, one of the key points of the CNN article that caught my attention was this quote from a EU Commission lawyer stating that Microsoft aims 'to eliminate the openness of the Internet, to proprietize the Internet, the lawyer said, adding the groundwork will be laid in Microsoft's forthcoming new operating system, Vista.'"
Key article quote:
and:Seems Microsoft, et. al., especially Balmer are back to their old swagger when they talk so boldly about "conquering". Remember Ballmer, during the US DOJ investigation was the one who said "Janet Reno can go to Hell."
(And, before any business experts go off on "a company's business is to make money by conquering a market", remember, Microsoft is already convicted of abusing its monopoly position to introduce an imbalance in other markets. This is exactly the position Balmer takes so boldly in his interview.)
Amazing.
Like life, creative people will find a way. Some of the most brilliant and creative people I have ever met are Open Source people who, against the odds, have successfully taken on the giants and done so well. Red Hat, MySQL, Firefox...just to name a few. Talking about new and creative products, one only need look to SPLUNK.
The only people who see innovation as dead are those who don't thin it is possible to create. I'm not creative...I'll admit that. But I don't think everyone will throw in the towel, and I think some of the best is yet to come...from the Open Source community.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
This latest Microsoft argument reminds me of one of my favorite things in the whole world.
And that is watching someone get so mad that not only do they stop making sense, but they lose the ability to even form grammatically sensible sentences.
Seeing someone, or in this case, company just fucking lose it is a rare and wonderful sight to see.
Why trust the EU to get this right and then not go after SuSE and RedHat for bundling only one or two players and integrating them into KDE and GNOME?
Because KDE and GNOME are not in a monopoly situation.
True, I am only speaking from my own firsthand knowledge as a freelance programmer over the last 8 years or so. 99% of the clients that I take on want thier code done in Visual Studio, mostly for maintainability reasons.
Its probably different in the sysadmin world.
But if you are writing code that is going to be used by end users, its a pretty low chance that its going to be for a non-windows platform.
Its the 'Walled Garden' approach - and the market has shown that getting it right is tough.
To get it right you need to either:
1) Offer unique content / services / paradigm which has more value than other freely (or cheaper) content from another source
2) Make a big wall - so the consumer has no choice.
Doing 1) Is tough - case in point - AOL.
Doing 2) Consumers will run away to the more 'free' choice.
There are counter examples - I mean this is on Slashdot - so clearly Slashdot holds some value which results in the usage of it.
The 'do it all' and extend with proprietary extensions concept is common. You still have to do 1) - if you add proprietary goo that doesn't do something useful nobody will use it / people will use the more open standard.
Even if your standard is better you may lose the war too if theres something else out there that is 'good enough' and cheaper...
...all the EU is doing is poking Gulliver with their Lilliputian sticks.
If, as you say, Microsoft is Gulliver to the EU's Lilliput, then something is seriously fucked up the world. Since when do the interests and influence of a single corporation outweigh the interests and influence of a Nation State - not even a Nation, a body of Nations? But that's the crack that MS is selling, and they're smoking it themselves. From Wired:
A close friend of Gates' recalls a dinner with him and his then-fiancée (now wife) Melinda French back in 1993. "We were talking about Clinton, who'd just been elected, and Bill was saying blah, blah, blah about whatever the issue was," this friend remembers. "Then Bill stopped and said, 'Of course, I have as much power as the president has.' And Melinda's eyes got wide, and she kicked him under the table, so then he tried to play it off as a joke.
Microsoft is damn lucky that the US elected a friendly administration to close their antitrust case. They could have had their balls chopped off. And should have. Their first judge was so disgusted he couldn't keep his mouth shut; turning the suit over to a wimp.
Now it's the EU's turn. Tell me why, exactly, the EU should bend over for Microsoft, instead of the other way around? Tell me how the wealth of Microsoft stands up the combined wealth of the EU collective. The EU should bitch slap Microsoft for being the self-interested anti-competitive egomaniacal sneaky underhanded boundlessly greedy curs that they are.