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Subject: Re: What are you talking about?

Author: Scott Gasch

Date: 11:33:45 08/08/01

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On August 08, 2001 at 04:52:12, Ricardo Gibert wrote:

>It makes a difference if they are a monopoly.

Why?  First, how can you call MS a monopoly?  In my opinion, that's crap.  The
court has ruled they are a monopoly in the "desktop operating system market".
What the hell is that?  There are plenty of other OSes out there and the
division between "desktop" and "server" is blurred: Linux, FreeBSD, BeOs,
Solaris, NetBSD, SCO, OSX, etc...

But let's assume you're right.  MS is a monopoly.  And let's ignore the question
of why they are a monopoly (which, in my opinion, is because they have built a
product that people like and buy).  There are plenty of other monopolies: the
post office, the phone/power/water company, the cable company, whatever.  There
are also a lot of other large companies that control commanding shares of their
market.  By your logic it is ok to rip these guys off because they are
successful.

If you dislike a company or their product, why are you using it?  Windows 9x
crashes every 20 minutes?  Here's a clue: use something else.  In the case of
MS, you do have a choice.  Several, in fact.  Every user who doesn't send their
$100 to Redmond helps erode the so-called "monopoly".  Speak with your
pocketbook.  But don't rob a company whose empire *you helped build* and then
justify it by saying they are a monopoly.



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