Interesting comment from Petro in Amiga Future #86

[Pyromania]

Amiga Future #86 is a great issue and I recommend getting it. In a interview with Petro Tyschtschenko he answered one question very interesting.


Question: AmigaMMC's abrupt end and the dismissal of Jim Collas were a big surprise to many and hard to understand. Do you know what made Gateway take this step?

PT: I think Microsoft wasn't so innocent in the whole matter. Gateway was a PC producer and co-operated closely with Microsoft. Microsoft definitely didn't want to have a new platform as competition.

[ElPolloDiabl]

I want my MCC (sung like mtv).

[MaximvsPayne]

thats interesting, the idea of the mcc wasnt that bad but microsoft stopped it indirectly like it seems.. damn

[Golem!dk]

Funny.

[Crom00]

Microsoft strong arming a vendor into submission? Come on guys to think they would have such malicious intent.

[Plaz]

Pretty standard story from over the years. Microsoft simply says... "Hey there vendor, if you mess with that third party product, your license with us could be in jeopardy."

What's a company to do that's deeply reliant on MS? Perhaps initially Gateway was niave in thinking it could develope Amiga without consequence.

Plaz

[pwermonger]

I doubt it was directly Amiga that MS even noticed. I recall back in those days MS having a general policy in precventing the companies that got special pricing on the OS from sellign any hardware with another OS. the "stick"they used was that special pricing threatening to pull that meaning the maker would add hundreds to the price of their computers compared to competitors who were still getting the OEM prcing for Windows.
 
Add to that MS not allowing anyone to alter the bootloader in a dual OS system they sold pretty much killed any chance another OS had to gain any percentage of market for a long time.

[Templario]

The long arm of Bill Gates when they want the master of world, now he is more calm, because if not Linux and others will be finished.

[jorkany]

I doubt it was directly Amiga that MS even noticed. I recall back in those days MS having a general policy in precventing the companies that got special pricing on the OS from sellign any hardware with another OS. the "stick"they used was that special pricing threatening to pull that meaning the maker would add hundreds to the price of their computers compared to competitors who were still getting the OEM prcing for Windows.

To this day there are still people in the collective Amiga community who believe MS and Apple are "out to get" OS4.

[persia]

It's fascinating how a community that measures sales in 100s can possibly think that communities that measure sales in 1,000,000s see them as a threat.

[Plaz]

It's fascinating how a community that measures sales in 100s can possibly think that communities that measure sales in 1,000,000s see them as a threat.

1997 was a different world. Far more potential existed. But then it was squander leaving today's sad remains of 100's. Or perhaps 1000's if you're very optimistic.

Plaz

[KThunder]

Microsoft strong arming a vendor into submission? Come on guys to think they would have such malicious intent.

I don't think it is really as malicious as that. MS gives special rates to large manufacturers and part of getting that special rate is exclusivity. If they gave a company a special rate and they break the terms of that agreement I don't think it is malicious to pull that rate, or at least warn of that possibility. Companies should be allowed to use special rates and other incentives to encourage the use of thier product, and revoke said incentives if necissary.

I think the reality of pc's no longer being "IBM" compatible or even x86 compatible but being MS pc's as opposed to Apple pc's or linux pc's changes the gameplan. Microsoft is protecting its interest in the manufacturers that use its os as much as Apple protects what machines can use its os.

The strong-arming I do see is what MS did to netscape, and has tried to do to Sun et al. Making a product similar to but incompatible, giving it away free and then trying to enforce its use, putting the original company out of businness.

[djrikki]

None of this surprises me in the slightest.

[the_leander]

Question: AmigaMMC's abrupt end and the dismissal of Jim Collas were a big surprise to many and hard to understand. Do you know what made Gateway take this step?

PT: I think Microsoft wasn't so innocent in the whole matter. Gateway was a PC producer and co-operated closely with Microsoft. Microsoft definitely didn't want to have a new platform as competition.

Wait, so the dancer Jim was shagging was in fact a cunning plan by microsoft to use honey pot set to destroy Amiga?

GODDAMNIT!

/sarcasm

Even in 1997, Microsoft had the home desktop market sewn up. Yes, they strongarmed vendors to stop other OS's getting into a position where they might become a threat. But tbh the effort put behind the Amiga was so bipolar and messy, it was never going to get to the point where Microsoft would even notice them.

[vidarh]

I don't think it is really as malicious as that. MS gives special rates to large manufacturers and part of getting that special rate is exclusivity. If they gave a company a special rate and they break the terms of that agreement I don't think it is malicious to pull that rate, or at least warn of that possibility. Companies should be allowed to use special rates and other incentives to encourage the use of thier product, and revoke said incentives if necissary.

US anti-trust law says different, and MS didn't dare face off with the US DOJ over it (entered a consent decree in 1995 where they guaranteed they would end this and other anti-competitive practices), because it is highly anticompetitive for a company with a near monopoly to use that position to strongarm customers into not dealing with their competitors.

EDIT: You might also note that MS was later sued and *convicted* of a spate of violations of US anti-trust law. In fact, had it not been for incompetence on the part of the judge (spouting of to the press), MS might have been broken up into pieces.