Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on August 18, 2003 03:40 AM
David and Goliath was a tale where Good triumphed over Evil.
And there is no doubt in my mind that Microsoft represents Evil.
While most companies try to compete through better products, Microsoft is almost alone in the computer industry for having succeeded through a series of acts of destruction. Even in a Free Market, the law should have prevented that, however, though convicted of wrongdoing more than once, Microsoft has never been punished.
One of the best documented cases of Microsoft destruction was their campaign against Java. As Microsoft boasted in their marketing presentation:
> Strategic Objective [is to] kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market.
http://java.sun.com/lawsuit/051498.unfair.html
When Microsoft carried through on that threat, by spreading the intentionally-incompatible J++ (as well as "cutting off Netscape's air supply"), Microsoft made it impossible for businesses to rely on Java clients. Thus, this single act of sabotage resulted in a years-long delay in the progress of e-commerce -- an industry that is hundreds of billions of dollars in size.
By sabotaging Java, and delaying e-commerce, Microsoft has reduced the world's wealth by tens of billions of dollars. And do you know what happens when you remove that much wealth from the world? People die, probably in the thousands!
Not that you could ever trace those deaths back to Microsoft. Someone, somewhere, won't have the money for a medical test, someone else won't have the money to fix his brakes, a clinic in Africa won't have the money to buy supplies, and so on.
When you reduce the world's wealth, people die. And when Microsoft polluted Java, they reduced the world's wealth.
But that pales compared to Microsoft's plan to decommoditize the Internet, and turn it into a Microsoft-controlled monopoly.
Right now, the Internet's open protocols allow anyone to join in. This is increasing wealth, and knowledge, around the world. It is a development on par with the telephone, or radio, and it will save millions of lives. But if Microsoft succeeds in destroying the Internet's openness, then many of those lives will be lost.
Note that, as usual, Microsoft is alone in this. Everyone else is trying to compete to provide the best new Internet services and products. Only Microsoft is trying to undermine the very nature of the Internet itself.
But even that is small compared to Microsoft's efforts to affect government. Microsoft is fighting the use of Open Source in government, and is pushing for DRM. Thus, Microsoft is promoting secrecy in government, and increased government control over our lives. The direction of such actions is toward the end of democracy, and a return to slavery. I am not exaggerating.
Microsoft's executives do not care about the consequences of their actions. Microsoft destroys wealth. Microsoft is evil.
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Microsoft is Evil
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on August 18, 2003 03:40 AMAnd there is no doubt in my mind that Microsoft represents Evil.
While most companies try to compete through better products, Microsoft is almost alone in the computer industry for having succeeded through a series of acts of destruction. Even in a Free Market, the law should have prevented that, however, though convicted of wrongdoing more than once, Microsoft has never been punished.
One of the best documented cases of Microsoft destruction was their campaign against Java. As Microsoft boasted in their marketing presentation:
> Strategic Objective [is to] kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market.
http://java.sun.com/lawsuit/051498.unfair.html
When Microsoft carried through on that threat, by spreading the intentionally-incompatible J++ (as well as "cutting off Netscape's air supply"), Microsoft made it impossible for businesses to rely on Java clients. Thus, this single act of sabotage resulted in a years-long delay in the progress of e-commerce -- an industry that is hundreds of billions of dollars in size.
By sabotaging Java, and delaying e-commerce, Microsoft has reduced the world's wealth by tens of billions of dollars. And do you know what happens when you remove that much wealth from the world? People die, probably in the thousands!
Not that you could ever trace those deaths back to Microsoft. Someone, somewhere, won't have the money for a medical test, someone else won't have the money to fix his brakes, a clinic in Africa won't have the money to buy supplies, and so on.
When you reduce the world's wealth, people die. And when Microsoft polluted Java, they reduced the world's wealth.
But that pales compared to Microsoft's plan to decommoditize the Internet, and turn it into a Microsoft-controlled monopoly.
Right now, the Internet's open protocols allow anyone to join in. This is increasing wealth, and knowledge, around the world. It is a development on par with the telephone, or radio, and it will save millions of lives. But if Microsoft succeeds in destroying the Internet's openness, then many of those lives will be lost.
Note that, as usual, Microsoft is alone in this. Everyone else is trying to compete to provide the best new Internet services and products. Only Microsoft is trying to undermine the very nature of the Internet itself.
But even that is small compared to Microsoft's efforts to affect government. Microsoft is fighting the use of Open Source in government, and is pushing for DRM. Thus, Microsoft is promoting secrecy in government, and increased government control over our lives. The direction of such actions is toward the end of democracy, and a return to slavery. I am not exaggerating.
Microsoft's executives do not care about the consequences of their actions. Microsoft destroys wealth. Microsoft is evil.
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