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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."
Unfortunately, however, no matter how much people monitor and complain, the corperate-friendly USA will just give them a slap on the wrist and say, "Bad Microsoft! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back ot using internet Explorer and Windows Messenger, and bombing those damn terrorists!"
Don't mind the extra X. Alex
As far as I know, Microsoft doesn't make a single PC. IBM's monopoly was replaced by a thriving wealth of hardware and software companies plus a monopoly for the OS. I would even add that the OS is only a fraction of the cost of a PC, so it's very arguable that IBM was replaced by what is for the most part a vast open market.
Note, this doesn't mean I think Microsoft's monopoly is good. It's very bad for the industry. Just pointing out that when you break up a monopoly (and I believe market forces broke up IBMs) then you do have a chance for improvement.
TW
I was always surprised that MS wasn't also slammed for Office. It is, after all, the sole reason they are a monopoly in the other 2 spaces.
Exchange exists as it does not because it's the best email/calendaring server, because it's not, but because it offered a better environment than Notes and met the X.500 requirements the government set out, well, sort of, they're actually not compliant, but that's a different story, something to do with case sensitivity....
There's far better email servers out there, and far better clients than Outlook, and far better calendaring servers. There's just not a client that ties them together as well yet, and that's a shame.
And just to bring it back on topic - the states are right - nothing has yet changed in the desktop space - MS is still the dominant by far player, the OS has yet to be replaced. (Hints of what might come after Vista are presaged by the wonders of the likes of cio.com, if you believe them. IE, by sole virtue of being "part" of the OS, is the dominant browser, but its market share appears to be rapidly falling over the past year or so, and may (hopefully) show the future trend of the OS. If you've tried the latest release of OOo, then you'll know that OOo is a viable replacement for Office, and a welcome one considering the pain that O2007 is causing some of us at least that are forced to use it.
I will predict that in the next 3-4 years, the landscape will change radically. MS will still be a powerhouse, but will just be the 400 pound gorilla, being much chastised and otherwise reduced from its former 800 pound size. ODF will probably become the standard, whether MS wants it to or not, and Office will fall rather rapidly from its perch. Look for this to happen within 12 months of 02003 being EOL'd and unsupported. Look for Apple to make further inroads in market share, as more and more people buy their laptops. Watch Dell implode as it loses the top spot. Watch Linux, probably in the form of Ubuntu, finally make inroads in marketshare, and possibly even into the business workspace. All this by the end of 2010.
Rather than mod me down - care to make your own predictions?
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Exactly! What the continuance of the monopoly has conclusively shown is that the 'monitoring' is the biggest failure in the whole process. Did the monitoring committee look into why the market has rejected Vista?
Did they bother to find out why Vista needs so much hardware resources and makes existing hardware obsolete?
I think the regulators must force Microsoft to open source Windows 2000 and Office 2000 - the entire source code. Anyone should be free to modify Win2K and O2K and make a good desktop OS that needs just 128MB RAM to run - without breaking every known hardware and software - like Vista does.
In a year, we will see lots of genuine competition.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Thanks for the dose of reality, westlake.
...however we've got our heads jammed so far up our own asses that all we can do is argue about who's license is more free.
FOSS software, despite the best hallucinations of the slashdot crowd, isn't making a dent in MS where it counts: the Bottom Line. We need to wake up, people! We are not doing enough to break this monopoly. And it will have to be the geeks that do it, because the government won't. I realize I'm ranting, but I just get so frustrated by this smug sense of inevitability that is so often on display here. Do you think MS will go down without a fight? Do you think that a company with almost limitless cash is going to be threatened by anything less than all-out war from the FOSS community?
Here are the facts:
- No one is going to do anything about MS's monopoly.
- The monopoly will get worse.
- The only people who have a chance to break it are the geeks.
- Even then it would take a united effort from all of us.
-
I defy anyone to disprove any of my facts. Go ahead and mod me down. MS wins again.
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
It's very sensible to underline the amount of work involved in a migration. However I think we're missing the point.
Wouldn't it sound terribly fascist if your public administration got a parking lot manufactured by Smart which accomodates only the measures of Smart vehicles, thereby forcing all employees and visitors to get a smart? yet we accept similar stunts in software.
Isn't it right to devote resources to make public property accessible to people with disabilities? Didn't we rightfully devote resources to ensure equal opportunities regardless the gender? So I want equal opportunity for operating systems and applications, provided they try to adhere to open standards. I'm helping even people who prefer to stay locked in, as I'm forcing MS to fight and have better pricing.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Is *NOT* the operating system. We all know that Apple makes a better OS. Linux *could be* a better OS if it had some more polish (sorry /.ers).
You need to break the monopoly of financial and other business institutions relying on Excel and Microsoft Office. Don't tell me about Pages or Keynote or whatever other software there is. Sure, it's easy to use, very pretty... but Office is a product that Microsoft doesn't fuck around with, and produces (and I'm waiting for my hateful comments) -- AWESOMELY. It's the best software that Microsoft makes. Office 2007 is a great step forward in usability, stability, intelligence, and workflow. You can't interoperate your Pages information with your Keynote information, or vice versa. But in Excel, highlight some cells, copy, and dump it into a fully editable Word document. Then take a Visio diagram and dump it into the same Word Doc -- still editable. Collaborate easily on Sharepoint (now also part of Office). With Groove, you collaborate even further at the same time. And it's all stable, clean, and simple to use software with a powerful macro language (though I'm sure it's not the best) that allows you to automate and get information from different APIs (just walk into any financial institution and you'll see HUGE spreadsheets that download information out of Reuters and Bloomberg, email folks about updates, send updates to Blackberries formatted properly, etc).
Break THAT monopoly, and Windows won't even matter.
And don't mention Open Office. It's a joke compared to MS Office right now.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.