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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Coder on March 05, 2002, 02:27:09 PM
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Maybe Microsoft will take Windows of the market because of government actions. What will we do now?
Check the article at the Washingtonpost (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33198-2002Mar3.html) website
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I doubt they will do that. But you never know wich evil trick they will come up with this time. Would it not be fun if they would stop selling Windows, no support and no future development?
Coder
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Hmmmm. This is really weird - now that we need them. But I shouldnt worry - Windows wouldnt just dissapear overnight. I know many people still running 95.
Serioussly though, MS have been using their weight to keep there monopoly up - However, I dont see a problem with Browser intergration. In fact I beleive that all modern OS' should come with a Browser - let Netscape intregate there technology with another OS! The thing I do object to, is the way that MS bullies its OEM's by preventing them from using any other OS..... Anyone remember the Toshiba deal with BeOS? MS turned round and said - you install Be, you can no longer install Windows, its written in your contract....... that's what the DOJ should be taken MS up on!
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I agree with you Bobsonsirjonny. They should attack MS on there bullying and not about that the browser is integrated in the OS. I do think they did not allow Compaq to sell computers with Netscape on it in those days. They forced Compaq not to do that. I bet there are more of those stories that never have been released.
Coder
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Maybe then the alledged MS/Amiga Inc. link is a MS ploy to prove how much they care about "the little guys out there" !
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Tood good to happen! And yes, Microsoft are of course using Amiga to show that they care fro the little guys.
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A well designed Operating System is modular and scalable. Tying multimedia and internet technologies to the core operating system offers no real technological advantages.
When there is a global OS monopoly I believe clone companies should be offered the option to purshase only the parts they want or need. If they want to leave Mozilla out in favour of the Opera browser that should have to be possible. The same option should have to be available for most other programs like document viewers, multimedia players and all similar 3rd party programs.
I do believe packages should be allowed to be offered by a monopolist as well, but there should have to be a rational price distinction between full packages and a bare bones version of the operating system. Other companies should have to be able to offer their own packages with the monopolist OS core as well. The current monopolist tries to tie every technology thinkable to its operating system and (also) therefor abuses its position to kill competition.
This anti-competitive behaviour is extremely bad for innovation in my opinion.
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What would I do? Party.
Let's see, Microsoft says that if the antitrust sanctions are granted, they'll be forced to take WinXP off the market and they'll be unable to develop new systems.
I think Microsoft is bluffing, and the state prosecutors should call Microsoft's bluff.
If Microsoft really shuts down OS development, then I, as an Amigan, will celebrate.
But I personally doubt Microsoft will shut down its war machine because the US government orders it to do so.
AmiGod
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This is just an empty threat / bargaining chips against the US Government. If they pulled out Windows + its support many Gov't employees will become "Clueless" about various problems on Windows :)
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+ its support many Gov't employees will become "Clueless" about various problems on Windows :)
No they wouldn't. If Microsoft went away tomorrow, they couldn't pull thousands of installations off of machines, and they have done a great job at training MCSE's and MCT's who actually know what's going on in the world.
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I'll just point out that the initial reson for the DOJ to persue MS over the browser issue, wasn't becuase it was having a devenstaing effect on companies like Netscape, but because the DOJ wasn't able to use the software that companies like netscape developed for several US government agenices that they paid a large price for, was rendered inoperable by the presence of the system dominating IE 4.0, remeber IE3.0 had been included in the 97 upgrade of win95 and no one complained.. because it was easily over ridden
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I use Netscape 4.7 and 6.0 on my some of my Windows 2000 machines.
IE does not hamper them in any way.
My gripe is that Netscape 6 is DOG slow and takes longer to load then Win2000 takes to boot.
It works fine except when I try to view vidio clips on a MicroShaft site such as MSN or MSNBC. They say that Netscape does not support the Windows Media player.
The Windows Media Player works just fine on all other sites that I have used it on!
The current version of Netscape 6 (6.2) is faster then the previous 6.x versions but still much slower then IE.
Loki
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The whole Netscape affair was probably the leftovers from a political battle behind closed doors.
Two words: Campaign contributions.
Don't expect M$ to be dragged in court and actually get hurt. It's just so infantile. M$ rules over polititians and politians rule over the court. M$ cracks the whip and tings go away.
It's not utopia nor is it fair. It's just the way things work at the moment.
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Sorry for straying off the topic, Wayne, but your comment of "knowing what's going on in the world" made me break in. Can anyone out there tell me why I can't log on anymore? I registered a few days ago, and suddenly I can't log on as a member!? My password got changed, but I figured it out, just to find out I'm logged on as a guest... not a member. This was the only forum I could post on.
A little help?
Scarecrow :-?
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This is just an empty threat / bargaining chips against the US Government.
Yes, this is just their usual scare tactics. They threaten that all kinds of bad things will happen if they loose. Last time they said that the US economy would more or less collapse if they were broken up.
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No idea. Delete your cookies and try again. Why is it that no one ever thinks to e-mail me rather than posting this publicly? Are Amiga users so backwards it affects their sensibilities?
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Hmm, well for one thing Windows is not M$'s biggest earner.
For another, If they took Windows off the market, they'd get out of having to support their old (and new) OS's (apart from arranged contracts, presumably - but these wouldn't be renewed)
Next - Windows as a brand has become severely damaged over the past few years.
If they took Windows off the market today, people would still be using WinNT/2k/XP in 5 years time - heck people still use 95 today. It's likely developers will still be making Windows apps during this period anyway, until another OS has become the dominent OS, but it would a slow switch and you'd likely have devlopers using both OS's for a time after that.
And where in 'taking Windows off the market' does MS say they're going to stop making OS's I'd bet they'd love the chance to make a new OS from the ground up, implenting their current tech directly into the OS, securing everything with their own protocols, forcing everyone not only to pay out for a new OS but also for new copies of office etc, screwing them over more than they ever have been able to before. They'd also have a major advantage when porting windows apps across as they'd have access to both the old and new OS source. (taking windows off the market would likely mean that noone could force them to release the source)
The main disadvantage to them and the reason I think too think this is just an empty threat is :
64bit CPUs (itanium and the Hammer) should be available before the end of the year and if M$ miss the boat with WinXP64 Linux64 will quickly fill the void, and considering 64bit tech is firmly aimed at large corporates, MS will miss out on a shedload of cash and they'll find it very difficult to become the dominant OS if Linux64 takes hold before they do - it's a lot more difficult to become dominant than it is to stay dominant.
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The post above was by me BTW - must have hit post anon or something by accident :-?
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The big problem is that when people think Computer they mean PC, and PC is connected to Windows in peoples thinking (M$ Brainwash 2002). That`s the way it is, much thanks to the OEM deal. Making the Companies stick with Windoze, is making people use Internet Exploder. That is the problem. People think Internet , and mean IE! That makes no more room for Netscape. Also you can`t uninstall IE!
b.t.w. IE stinks
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Windoze leave us? Ohhh, i'm depressing. Steve Balmer want take off the joke?
:-D