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I once read about the telephone's introduction and the struggles with the established telegraph industry. There were even murders around that technology switch!
So this lawsuit is important from a social point of view. Companies should be called on suppressive tactics every time they show up.
Nevertheless, Netscape sure did shoot itself in the foot. Version 4 was one thing, but then after so long a wait to have v.6 be a dog too. If v.6 had been, say, the caliber of Opera, lots of people would have come back to Netscape as the word spread. IE's security problems would have done half of the publicity work for free!
And I will keep saying - NN is a trash and nothing will help them! Sue or not to sue - the battle was lost some years ago!
AS Bill Gates says, "some people just miss turns on the way"
Imagine someone is a thief. You could say, "They are a thief, so it is OK for me to break into their house and steal their things." But, if you got caught stealing from them, you would still be arrested and thrown in jail. Just because Netscape put out a bad browser doesn't make it OK for Microsoft to use illegal anti-competitive tactics against them.
What if I created the most incredible word processing program ever... it beat MS Word hands down, was better then Word Perfect ever dreamed of being, stomped all over the word processing features of every "Works" program ever released... And I went to Dell and showed it to them. They agreed it was the best. I said, I'll let you distribute my program on your retail machines for only $10 per copy, if you put the icon on the desktop by default. Then Microsoft told them, "Take that new icon off the desktop, or we'll make you pay full retail price for every copy of Windows you use on your computers."
Do you think Dell would keep my icon on their desktop? No. And that's why what Microsoft did was illegal. It has NOTHING to do with who's software is better. It has to do with Microsoft using their market position to bully other companies, and make it very very difficult, if not impossible, to gain a real foothold in the market place for anyone trying to compete with their products.
But not because that is how the business works.
That is exactly what my boss says. "You HAVE TO use Microsoft for business because EVERYONE ELSE uses Microsoft." He has never once said he thinks Microsoft makes the best products. He doesn't know if they make the best products, because he has never tried any other products, and he admits that. But he doesn't think he has a viable choice in the business world.
That is the best text editor for easy use. Not agree???
I do not agree at all. While MS Word 2001 for Mac is 10X's more stable than Word 98 was, it's still a huge resource hog of a program. I only use it when I'm making up a document for my boss, because he doesn't have the software on his Windows NT box to handle any other type of formatted file.
Still, this lawsuit is no doubt going to be the battle of the major league corporate lawyers and I wouldn't attempt to predict where it's going, but in a simpler case, I think it would make a big difference whether the plaintiff could prove harm was done to him by the tactics involved. It's not like criminal law, so laws about breaking and entering and such aren't the best analogy. What some of us are arguing is that Netscape lost their market share without help from Microsoft and would have lost it just based on the relative merits of the browsers as they developed. What the court will say..who knows?
Outlook
LOL... My boss pays our network support guy to come in and update the NT virus software every time something new crops up... and I tell him every time: Switch email programs, and 99% of this garbage will no longer be a threat. He just smiles. You HAVE to use Microsoft, you see...
Anyone who's not using IE almost always knows what their browser is. IE users often don't even know what the WORD "browser" means! That's what Microsoft has achieved. They've eliminated the category "browser" from the average user's mind. They're not being chosen as the Best in Show.
Interesting how the same could be said for AOL as an ISP.
As minnapple said, we are all capitalists..
For example, everybody here think Google is the best ( sorry, not everybody, but 80%, I think :)<for Everyman:)> ) Often I hear here "I would like Google to be known and used more often"..
Ok. But what would be when Google will become the BEST and the BEST!?????????????
The same people will claim :"Oh, s###. They are monopoly.."
Yes, Microsoft is not always right! But ok, if they are the business standard, then what should you do??? Should you cry and say "I hate MS"??
And IE is not the case to compare with NS. They are simply better!
And as far as the necessity for AOL to retool to make NN their default browser, oh I shed a tear. If it is THAT important to them, they'd do it. Heaven knows they have the money, time, resources AND, most important, the distribution network; a distribution network MORE effective than M$. Heck, if even they didn't want to invest the time and money, they could put a "Download Netscape Browser FREE" notice or even a disk in all those damn free trial offers for AOL.
Whether or not you like M$ doesn't matter. I said it before and I'll say it again: when things don't go your way, you sue, plain and simple, right or wrong. That's the American way. Head to head with I.E. and Opera, Netscape stinks!
It's a weird thing that just as IE got good, Netscape got bad, but that's what happened. So, given that history I think it's a lot more complicated than just about any other the Microsoft vs. everyone else issues.
<bringing it home> If you had a court ruling that stated you were damaged by big, greedy, monopoly corporation, would you just sit on it, or would you be in your lawyers office?</bringing it home>
Taxpayer money is not being used by AOL to sue M$.
The government did spend to curb a monopoly that would eventually cost consumers more than any legal fees incurred.
And on another note, if they were so severely damaged, why haven't they taken action before. It's one of those things that stinks because the only reason they're doing anything about it now is that they're not holding hands with M$ behind close doors. They want to have their cake and eat it too.
That is why we have a justice department and not a paid vigilante department.
