RayW
Premium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
clubs:
 ·XMission
| reply to Combat Chuck
Re: Anti-MS Whiners
said by Combat Chuck  :
So microsoft was anticompetitive based on something a phone monkey told you?
This at a time when many people refered to the world wide web as "Netscape".
Not the common phone monkey, several layers up in the hierarchy. I was the monkey, the Microsoft rep and one of our managers were doing the talking with input from us trench workers. But even if a common phone monkey knew about what was going on, that a promise to at least one major client was not only broken, but destroyed to work on a certain project, then I guess that might be a slight clue as what was going on. Microsoft can not stand competition, at any any cost.
You are right in what appears to be your hidden point. They did not do anything outright illegal, at the time. And no contracts were broken because although Microsoft mail did not scale as promised, it worked as specified on paper. And everyone knows that an American's verbal contract is not worth anything, especially from big business and lawyers.
said by Combat Chuck :
Point is netscape didn't lose money and probably actually gained money because Microsoft made it so home users didn't have to worry about downloading a browser. You can't claim somebody undercut your business when in fact you are giving away the item for free.
That is where you are wrong. Did you ever read or fill out a Netscape agreement back then? Only if you were a select group like a student could you use it for free. If you were not, then you were suppose to pay. I know I did not since I was a student. It was 'honor-ware', which many people interpret as 'free-ware'. It was sometime after the advent of the Microsoft browser and the fact that free and present outweighed cost and have to get, that Netscape woke up to the fact that although they were better, they were outclassed in the market and went free.
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. |
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Combat Chuck
Too Many Cannibals
Premium
join:2001-11-29
Erie, PA
| reply to RayW
So microsoft was anticompetitive based on something a phone monkey told you?
This at a time when many people refered to the world wide web as "Netscape".
Point is netscape didn't lose money and probably actually gained money because Microsoft made it so home users didn't have to worry about downloading a browser. You can't claim somebody undercut your business when in fact you are giving away the item for free.
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Infogrames != Atari |
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RayW
Premium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
clubs:
·XMission
| reply to Combat Chuck
said by Combat Chuck :
They got slammed for integrating HTML interfaces into the OS; which really didn't cut into anyones business (Netscape was selling servers at the time so you could argue MS was helping them out by making it trivial for a computer newbie to fire up a browser).
Actually, around 1993-4 (if I remember the date right) I was on a conference call to Microsoft about long overdue patches to Microsoft mail (remember that fiasco?). After some hemming and hawing, the Microsoft rep finally told us that our 6 months overdue patch would not be forth-coming since the programmers had been pulled for the kill Netscape program. Now that was not an exact quote from her, but the words "pulled", "programmers", "kill", and "Netscape" are in the right relationship. To put this in perspective, I worked at a 25000 (yes 25K) person facility that was desperately trying to get 'wired'. Even if only half of that got wired, that is a lot of $$$ to tell to get lost for a feud. But you can see it worked.
And yes, I still am a M$ user since I have a family who does not want the slightly more difficult alternative, and I work for the US Gov that Microsoft finally got wise to and paid political payola to the powers-that-be.
Oh, and Netscape was as easy to bring up as IE after that. The only difference was, one came with your Microsoft package and was labeled free, and the other you had to look for and was listed as being free only for certain people like students.
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. |
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Combat Chuck
Too Many Cannibals
Premium
join:2001-11-29
Erie, PA
| reply to pnh102
They got slammed for integrating HTML interfaces into the OS; which really didn't cut into anyones business (Netscape was selling servers at the time so you could argue MS was helping them out by making it trivial for a computer newbie to fire up a browser). Now they're potentially going to cut into the profits of several companies and you don't really think they're going to have any problems?
I think this is a great idea; but I also think MS is opening themselves up to another anti-trust lawsuit. I feel bad for Microsoft; at this point no matter what they do they're going to PO someone.
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Infogrames != Atari |
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