____/ High Plains Thumper on Tuesday 30 October 2007 08:27 : \____

> Although this was written 9 years ago, I find that its truths are
> still apt in light of the current situation of the convicted
> monopoly.
>
> http://www.namebase.org/boycott.html
>
>

> Downsize Microsoft
>
> The following appeared in Madison PC Users Group's Bits & PCs,
> Vol.17, No.12, December 1998:
>
> From Love to Hate: Fifteen Years of Microsoft Products
> by Daniel Brandt
> January 1998
>
> While I have only a modest amount of experience with Unix and
> Windows programming, already I find myself asking whether
> Microsoft merely evolved into their clumsy approach to Windows
> application development, or whether there is something more
> sinister going on. Why wouldn't it be possible to design Windows
> so that the time-sharing of processor power and peripheral
> resources is invisible to the applications programmer? Why does
> it have to be so difficult (and expensive) to write a Windows
> application? Is it possible that there are slicker ways to write
> Windows applications, but that Microsoft has reserved these for
> in-house programmers, with the intention that they will be able
> to outperform competitors? In other words, was Windows
> programming made intentionally difficult? Is Microsoft evil, or
> just plain lazy, or are they stupid?
>
> Microsoft is exactly the opposite of the friendly ham down the
> street. Bill Gates keeps leveraging his advantage, keeps raising
> the price of admission, and keeps lowering the productivity of
> computer users everywhere, while contributing little or nothing
> that's innovative or educational. If we downsize this blight on
> our future, someday 14-year-olds around the world may thank us
> once again.
>
> The same can be said for Windows. The more one uses Windows, the
> more one suspects that at some point, Microsoft engineers gave up
> trying to track down the source of quirky or bizarre behavior, or
> even outright crashes, and instead left it to the user to recover
> as best he could. After all, what's the user going to do? Switch
> to another operating system? (One hears chuckles from the
> Microsoft boardroom.) After 14 years of development, Microsoft's
> Notepad, a plain text editor, still can't open a file that's
> larger than about 60 K. (Let them eat Word, chuckle, chuckle.)
>
> Anyone who claims that Microsoft is innovative is 1) incredibly
> stupid or inexperienced in microcomputing, or 2) getting paid by
> Microsoft, perhaps secretly, or 3) all of the above.
>

After the EU had win its case against Microsoft it could actually follow the
correct route, which aligns with Judge Jackson's suggestion.

Microsoft Responds as EU Considers Break-Up

,----[ Quote ]
| "It could be reasonable to draw the conclusion that behavioral remedies
| are ineffective and that a structural remedy is warranted," Kroes
| stated. While it may strike many as odd that the European Union
| could order a company located in the United States to split up or
| otherwise modify its structure, Kroes noted the possibility of
| such remedies is specifically mentioned in EU antitrust law.
`----

http://www.betanews.com/article/Micr...kUp/1177353952

EU warned to be careful on any Microsoft break-up

,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission, Europe's top antitrust regulator, has never
| broken up a company for abusing its market dominance, although it
| has required major divestments by firms seeking permission to merge.
|
| The former U.S. official and other legal experts say the EU executive
| could theoretically impose such a solution on Microsoft as the price
| of doing business in Europe.
`----

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articl...mktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/ywrzex


--
~~ Best of wishes

Roy S. Schestowitz | Coffee makes mw to0 jittery
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Load average (/proc/loadavg): 2.20 2.25 1.85 3/144 21912
http://iuron.com - semantic search engine project initiative

After takin' a swig o' grog, High Plains Thumper belched out this bit o' wisdom:

> Although this was written 9 years ago, I find that its truths are
> still apt in light of the current situation of the convicted
> monopoly.
>
> http://www.namebase.org/boycott.html

I first felt that trouble was brewing in 1993, when Microsoft's
development tools for MS-DOS became extinct. I believe I bought one
of the last Microsoft C compilers for MS-DOS that summer ($300). I'm
glad I did: soon all that Microsoft offered was Visual This and
Visual That -- pig packages that required better hardware than mine
just to install.

That was in 1998, by the way.

--
Tux rox!

"High Plains Thumper" wrote in message
news:fg6pt8$n0m$1@registered.motzarella.org...

> "... Why wouldn't it be possible to design Windows so that the
> time-sharing of processor power and peripheral resources is invisible to
> the applications programmer? "

Sounds like a job for .NET to me!


>
> "Anyone who claims that Microsoft is innovative is 1) incredibly stupid or
> inexperienced in microcomputing, or 2) getting paid by Microsoft, perhaps
> secretly, or 3) all of the above."
>

You have to sort technical innovation from business insight. Microsoft
takes technical innovations to market very efficiently. That is an
attribute of a strong market leader that can effectively sort the wheat from
the chaff.

That is the way to form a large scale use of something. There may be more
effective methods to do something than whatever may be selected by
Microsoft, but it is unlikely that the alternative is revolutionary, else
Microsoft will adopt it itself. "Heavy on the best and to hell with the
rest!" is the motto of all these large companies. Of course they get to
decide what they think is the best.

amicus_curious wrote:
>
> "High Plains Thumper" wrote in
> message news:fg6pt8$n0m$1@registered.motzarella.org...
>
>> "... Why wouldn't it be possible to design Windows so that the
>> time-sharing of processor power and peripheral resources is invisible
>> to the applications programmer? "
>
> Sounds like a job for .NET to me!
>
>
>>
>> "Anyone who claims that Microsoft is innovative is 1) incredibly
>> stupid or inexperienced in microcomputing, or 2) getting paid by
>> Microsoft, perhaps secretly, or 3) all of the above."
>>
>
> You have to sort technical innovation from business insight. Microsoft
> takes technical innovations to market very efficiently. That is an

ahah HAHAh HAH HHA HHHAHAH H hahah HAH aha ha hah ah,
Oh, you were serious?
aha HHA hAHAHAHHA ahH Ah AHHAH AHA HA AHAHA


> attribute of a strong market leader that can effectively sort the wheat
> from the chaff.
>
> That is the way to form a large scale use of something. There may be
> more effective methods to do something than whatever may be selected by
> Microsoft, but it is unlikely that the alternative is revolutionary,
> else Microsoft will adopt it itself. "Heavy on the best and to hell
> with the rest!" is the motto of all these large companies. Of course
> they get to decide what they think is the best.


--
Rick

amicus_curious wrote:

> Microsoft takes technical innovations to market very efficiently ..

Parental Controls -> Apple

Photos -> iPhoto

DVD creation -> iDVD

Movies -> iMovie

Zune -> iPod

Live Search -> Google

Xbox -> Playstation

Windows Media Player -> RealAudio

Internet Explorer -> Netscape

Excel -> Lotus 1-2-3

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Doug Mentohl

wrote
on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:32:41 +0000
:
> amicus_curious wrote:
>
>> Microsoft takes technical innovations to market very efficiently ..
>
> Parental Controls -> Apple
>
> Photos -> iPhoto
>
> DVD creation -> iDVD
>
> Movies -> iMovie
>
> Zune -> iPod
>
> Live Search -> Google
>
> Xbox -> Playstation
>
> Windows Media Player -> RealAudio
>
> Internet Explorer -> Netscape
>
> Excel -> Lotus 1-2-3
>

Profits -> Microsoft


I wish I knew precisely what that was telling me,
admittedly, but Microsoft does appear to have the Midas
touch in desktop software, and to some extent its XBox
gaming platform.

(Not that this makes its software any better from a
technical/quality standpoint. Fortunately for everyone,
the Zune flopped, the future of Microsoft-based Phones
is uncertain, Vista sales are acceptable but not great,
and open source will keep Microsoft a little more honest
on the server and desktop -- at least until Microsoft
implements a fool-proof, 100% secure DRM system that will
require everyone to use Windows Vista. Good luck with
that, Microsoft.)

--
#191, ewill3@earthlink.net
/dev/signature: Not a text file

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

The Ghost In The Machine wrote:

> Microsoft does appear to have the Midas touch in desktop software, and to some extent its XBox gaming platform.


It's called total lockin as the Midas touch is in Microsoft Windows
desktop software. He who controlls the desktop controls the industry, as
a MS exec once put it in one of the comes documents.

As for the Xbox, see what happened to the originators of its biggest
title after partnering with the borg, total absorption of its best bits
Halo and the original company left a gutted empty shell of its former self.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../10/05/1526212

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Doug Mentohl

wrote
on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:32:59 +0000
:
> The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
>
>> Microsoft does appear to have the Midas touch in desktop
>> software, and to some extent its XBox gaming platform.
>
>
> It's called total lockin as the Midas touch is in
> Microsoft Windows desktop software.

Well, yes.

> He who controlls the desktop controls the industry, as
> a MS exec once put it in one of the comes documents.

Link?

>
> As for the Xbox, see what happened to the originators
> of its biggest title after partnering with the borg,
> total absorption of its best bits Halo and the original
> company left a gutted empty shell of its former self.
>
> http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../10/05/1526212
>

Innovation by Evisceration. Nice.

Of course one wonders what really happened. The best I
can do is point to the Bungie press release.

“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it
allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious,
blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they
will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is
like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive.
We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as
well be dolphins. Or manatees,” said Jason Jones,
Bungie founder and partner.

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.a...news&cid=12835

Interesting thinking; may they do well. I am hoping Halo 4
gets ported to other platforms. :-)

--
#191, ewill3@earthlink.net
Useless C++ Programming Idea #12995733:
bool f(bool g, bool h) { if(g) h = true; else h = false; return h;}

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com