Check this. How many of these companies still exist today? Less than half. What choice did they have but to sell out? NONE. Sell out, or MS releases a competing product and kills you.
MS does indeed have a monopoly. The issue at the heart of the matter ISN'T whether or not Joe Schmo can write an OS or application. The issue is whether or not Joe Schmo can enter the market.
Think about it: MS has
Engaged OEMs in closed contracts that expressidly forbit installation of non-MS OS's. Hell, IBM can't even preinstall THEIR OWN OS (OS2/Warp).
Engaged OEMs in closed contracts that mandate the installation of (and payment for) MS Office on EVERY pc they sell. Want WordPerfect? Too bad. Have a copy of Office already and don't want to pay for another? Too bad. I can personally attest to this from buying my PC from Dell...
Consumed smaller startup companies simply to squash NON-MS technologies.
Consumed smaller startup companies to corner the market on emerging technologies.
Embedded formerly SEPARATE programs into Windows, for the sole purpose of discouraging purchase of competing programs. Case-in-point: IE 4.0. A separate product (you can download it and it ALONE from the MS web site), but tied to Win98 because it's "a vital part of the OS." Bah.
Bastardized standards, licensed technologies, and protocols in such a manner as to make the MS-Way the One True Way. Java, streaming media, and DHTML, to name a few examples.
Joe Schmo stands NO CHANCE of being able to successfully market his software, whether it be an OS or application. Sure, you can begin to, but as soon as it appears on MS's radar, you will be embraced-and-extended, or squashed.
MS has the most popular OS. They used this to corner the market regarding Office Suites, Internet Browsers, Server OS's, and others. Not to mention the attempted takeovers of the ISP market (MSN, anyone?), news media (MSNBC, anyone?), and high-end graphics market (Chrome Effects, Farenheit, SGI deals, anyone?), to name just a few.
Predatory business practices, when used by a company large enough to throw substantial weight behind them == monopoly.
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MS does indeed have a monopoly. The issue at the heart of the matter ISN'T whether or not Joe Schmo can write an OS or application. The issue is whether or not Joe Schmo can enter the market.
Think about it: MS has
Joe Schmo stands NO CHANCE of being able to successfully market his software, whether it be an OS or application. Sure, you can begin to, but as soon as it appears on MS's radar, you will be embraced-and-extended, or squashed.
MS has the most popular OS. They used this to corner the market regarding Office Suites, Internet Browsers, Server OS's, and others. Not to mention the attempted takeovers of the ISP market (MSN, anyone?), news media (MSNBC, anyone?), and high-end graphics market (Chrome Effects, Farenheit, SGI deals, anyone?), to name just a few.
Predatory business practices, when used by a company large enough to throw substantial weight behind them == monopoly.
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