Developers As Pawns and One-Night Stands

jcatcw writes "At the Comes vs. Microsoft antitrust case, last Friday's testimony included evidence that James Plamondon, a Microsoft technical evangelist, in a 1996 speech referred to independent software developers as 'pawns' and compared wooing them to trying to win over a one-night stand. Last week's proceedings also included testimony by Ronald Alepin, a former CTO at Fujitsu Software Corp. and currently an adviser to the law firm Morrison Foerster LLP. He said that Lotus 1-2-3 was killed, in part, by Microsoft encouraging Lotus's programmers to use the Windows API even though Microsoft's own developers found it too complicated to use." The plaintiffs have created a site that includes transcripts of testimony presented in the case.

Comments

Re:Stupid-ass Question

[Blakey Rat]

I really don't see how it even matters. It's Microsoft's OS, they can do what they want with it. It's not like there's some kind of ANSI standard for Windows applications that they were violating or anything. Even more so since they weren't a monopoly at the time... it's not Microsoft's fault that Apple, GeOS, and Amiga all failed to catch on.

Hell, considering the stance of other computers makers at the time, you should feel lucky Microsoft let you write applications at all. A lot of them either didn't allow third party developers at all, or charged outrageous fees if you even wanted to start making a program for their system.

Lotus Notes DOA anyway

[HW_Hack]

He said that Lotus 1-2-3 was killed, in part, by Microsoft encouraging Lotus's programmers to use the Windows API even though Microsoft's own developers found it too complicated to use." I recall Lotus Notes ........ and let me say that the only thing that killed Lotus Notes was Lotus Notes itself. I believe I've found one thing that you can't blame Microsoft for .......