States Claim There is No Match for Microsoft

Bergkamp10 writes "State antitrust regulators have dismissed companies such as Google and Mozilla Corp, and software technologies such as AJAX and SaaS as "piddling players that pose no threat to Microsoft's monopoly in the operating system and browser markets". According to the report ten US states, including California, New York and the District of Columbia have called for an extension of monitoring of Microsoft's business practices until November 2012. They claim that little has changed in the OS and browser spaces since the 2002 antitrust case ruled against Microsoft. In their most recent brief, the states countered Microsoft's contention that Web-based companies — Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo, eBay and others — and new Web-centric technologies constitute what Microsoft dubbed a "competitive alternative to Windows." Not even close, said the states, claiming that while these companies' products provide functionality for users they still rely on Operating Systems and browsers — the two spaces where Microsoft dominates. Experts were apparently even more damning, claiming competition in the market has not been restored since 2002 and that the collective powers of Google, Firefox and Web 2.0 are about as effective as a one legged man in a butt-kicking contest when it comes to unsettling Microsoft's monopoly of the market."

Comments

I'll have whatever it is you are smoking

[westlake]

Microsoft is Microsoft's own worst enemy.
Popular news and media outlets are routinely running stories about the slow adoption of Vista by major corporations and small businesses alike. New sales of Office are apparently lagging, too.

Microsoft had a spectacular first quarter.

Tremendous strength in Windows, Office, and Server products. Revenues in each division up 20%. Microsoft Q1 2008 By The Numbers

Office 2007 at retail "sells like gangbusters."

Office commands 17.4 percent of all PC software dollar volume, including PC games. When people go to the store to buy software, there's a good chance they'll end up buying Microsoft Office." PC Software's Great Year [October 20]

The October OS Platform Stats from w3Schools are suggestive;

Vista at 6%. Up 4% from March 07.
Linux at 3%. Up 1% from March 03.
OSX at 4%. Up 2% from March 03.

Re:Market Capitalization tells another story

[Anonymous Coward]

Sigh. Look, I've used Linux in some form since SuSE 6.1 and now run gentoo exclusively at home. MS are hardly my favourite company. However, the fact is that the NT kernel is actually pretty good. The core architecture is similar to VMS, since MS hired many VMS developers for the NT project like Dave Cutler, with various improvements based on the lessons of OS/2. With Vista, they've done some interesting and sensible things with the driver model etc.

The win32 API is a train wreck in some areas, and overall windows is probably more complex than it should be, but there's nothing particularly wrong with the kernel.