21 May
1998
21 May
'98
12:37 p.m.
On Thu, 21 May 1998, Kai Kaltenbach wrote:
We weren't, and aren't, Orwellian characters,
just folks trying to write software that people want to buy. Gee, I guess
it worked! So sue us!
I think one reason Microsoft is being sued is that Microsoft software does
not compete on the merits of the software alone. Windows 3.0 was the
first almost barely usable/tolerable version of Windows. I'm not a Mac
fan, but if you look at something like the Amiga and AmigaOS from 1985, it
was such a clearly better operating system and windowing system PC
environment compared to Microsoft's offering that if Microsoft had to
compete on technical merit alone, they would have been out of business
weeks after the Amiga's introduction.
To suggest that Microsoft's success is due to writing software that people
*want* to buy is disingenuous. Microsoft's success is due solely to the
monopoly IBM gave them in 1982. To their credit, Microsoft is only about
five years behind the curve. If IBM had kept the monopoly to themselves,
we'd all be closer to ten years behind the curve.
-- Doug