Microsoft, for many years, has been acting like the Standard Oil of computers. At one point, Microsoft allegedly was extorting fees from PC makers for every unit produced, even if it shipped without a copy of Windows (Standard Oil got a kickback from railroads for shipments of oil by its competitors).
In this case, Microsoft may even be correct. But it's somewhat like a serial rapist complaining about having to undergo non-consensual sex.
Microsoft's actually been Less Evil lately than they used to be. Oh sure, they're still evil. They're a corporation, after all. But they haven't been doing the kind of evil shit that Apple and Google have been doing in the tech business recently. Since being found guilty of exercising monopoly power (and slapped on the hands and told, "don't do that again!"), they have actually tried to stay on the (legal) straight and narrow insofar as exercising their monopoly power is concerned... amazing, but true.
ReplyDeleteGiven my own past run-ins with Microsoft (if you Google my real name you'll find a series of white papers I wrote back in the day condemning Microsoft's practices and extolling the virtues of Linux), I may seem to be an unlikely defender of Microsoft. And really, they don't need any defending, they're big boys, they can defend themselves. But as far as their current business practices are concerned, they're *way* cleaner than Back in the Day...
- Badtux the Geeky Penguin
Second meter, top of scale should be 12.5. Dammit, can't Democrats do math? (Temper, tem-per, I'm not in the GOP, remember).
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