From: rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu (RICHARD HOFFBECK)
Subject: Re: FCC will proclaim Microsoft is run by Communists! :)
Followup-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Reply-To: rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu
Organization: Colon Cancer Control Study, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 16:20:00 GMT

In article <8194@lib.tmc.edu>, jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard) writes:
> In article <1992Dec20.052923.23904@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> helz@ecn.purdue.edu (Randall A Helzerman) writes:
> >Yep, that's the good ol' American way of doing business alright.  If you can't
> >compete with someone, just get the Federal Goverment to break up their 
> >company.  The real "predatory practices" going on here are those vultures
> >of rival companies who are waiting to pick the bones of what's left of
> >Microsoft after the FTC's guts the carcass.
>  
> I had to go back to the top of this article just to see if it was being posted
> from microsoft.com. This is some of the brown-nosiest writing I've seen in
> some time. The simple fact is that MS isn't playing fair - they force
> manufacturers to sell machines with Windows and DOS preloaded (don't believe
> that? just try to buy one without!), 

Really, try and buy a car without tires.  I always considered it a convienence
that I didn't have to go over to Goodyear of Firestone after I bought a car :-)
Seriously, the charge wasn't that they forced anyone to do anything but that
they were selling DOS at a loss to keep DR-DOS or DesqView from cutting the
same sort of deal with the OEMs.  There was nothing in the agreement that
said manufacturer X couldn't include product Y on their machine, just that
they would include DOS on all of their machines.  BTW, the PC-Taylor chain
(or at least their stores in the Twin Cities) preload their systems with
DR-DOS and Windows.

> they use undocumented OS calls in their apps, 

Well I use Word and Excel for design issues, not because they are faster
than the competition.  And has been pointed out before, if this is such
a big advantage, why aren't Excel/Word the market leaders for their
product catagories.

> and they remove features from their development tools just to hinder a
> competing OS. 

Exactly what tools are you talking about.  This is apples and oranges.
If Borland develops tools for internal use that is being used by their
applications development people does that mean that they must include
(and support) those tools in their compiler packages.  I don't think so!

I remember an announcment several months ago that IBM was going to release
a bunch of applications that had been developed internally by their employees
for internal use.  Were they being anti-competitive, or perhaps didn't they
think that the tools were sufficiently developed to merit the marketing
and support costs?

--rick

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| Richard Hoffbeck               INTERNET: rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu |
| Colon Cancer Control Study     ATT     : (612) 627-4151         |
| University of Minnesota        CIS     : 72406,521              |
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