Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 11:14:39 -0500 From: Louis LeBlanc <leblanc+freebsd@keyslapper.org> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Smashing Bill Gates necessary? Message-ID: <20011029111437.A20972@keyslapper.org> In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.20011029092440.00fa6e38@mail.sage-american.com> References: <20011029040835.T2878-100000@big> <20011029040835.T2878-100000@big> <3.0.5.32.20011029092440.00fa6e38@mail.sage-american.com>
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On 10/29/01 09:24 AM, jacks@sage-american.com sat at the `puter and typed: > This thread is very much like arguing religion and politics... there is > never and end to such debates, and I ignored it until now... > > "...I wouldn't want to harm the guy, but I'd sure like to have seen MS > broken up. You think it would hurt him? I sincerely doubt it...." > > I doubt if Bill ever dreamed he would become as big as he did, but only in > America... But, just to bust him up without any real good reason is akin to > the phrase.." I am warmed by the fires that burn others..." When a company > becomes too big is in the eyes of the beholder and unlike other monopolies > that force you to use them without other alternative, the software business > is very fast-moving... things can be changed by that other fellow out there > working on something really big in his garage... and ole Bill could become > little again before he can dream of that too.... leave the market alone as > long as you have a choice! We shouldn't just complain because some one > became hugely successful... it inspires others to produce those new toys > for us. > > Okay... I'm bracing for the next shot...!! (I knew I shouldn't have said > anything!) On the contrary, you raise a good point in your third paragraph. Though I'd like to think I'm not just trying to warm up at Bill's burning stake, I think that some of the business tactics MS has been proven to use will prevent that little guy in his garage from ever getting his next big thing into the light of day. It's an old story, from (before) the Tucker automobile to DrDOS (No, I'm not blaming Bill for the failure of the Tucker :). When the tactics exercised by the big estiablished company, even if they did start out in a garage themselves, prevent the next entrepreneur from ushering in a new stage of evolution for an industry or even just a parallel stage, something is wrong. You are correct that things *can* be changed by the little guy in his garage, but if he gets squashed by the last one that made it out of the garage, we see a period of stagnation that causes harm to progress, and engenders progress only in some corporate bank account. Not that I'm against corporations making money, I'm a firm support of the world of capitalism, so long as it doesn't interfere with *real* progress. And yes, the world of software is fast moving, but how far would the Open and Free Software worlds have come without MS FUD? How far would IBM have come with DrDOS? IBM really only lost because they were the 'big corporation'. MS successfully waged a war on IBM using FUD as the primary weapon, and the business world sided with MS. Do I feel sorry for IBM? Not really, they seem to have survived, but that doesn't make it right. Should MS have been broken up? Probably. Personally, I think it would have been the best thing for *everyone* involved, from the little mom and pop software houses to the Open and Free software communities, to the new MS companies themselves. It would have forced everyone to think a little differently, and would very likely have resulted in new ideas. Of course that's not a really good reason, but the business tactics they used and the power they have to do harm to even the largest of their competitors is. Especially given their record of using that power. And as you say yourself, "leave the market alone as long as you have a choice!" Microsoft has exercised their tactics in ways that limited choice. Of course this is about 90% speculation, and nothing more than my own opinions, so you can take it or leave it. :) Cheers Lou -- Louis LeBlanc leblanc@keyslapper.org Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :) http://www.keyslapper.org ԿԬ Virtue is a relative term. -- Spock, "Friday's Child", stardate 3499.1 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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