Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

You have to laugh about this one.

Monpolist Microsoft is reacting to 3 Asian governments deciding they need to
jointly develop a freely available open source operating system in order to
provide themselves with a choice.

Microsoft - a convicted illegal monopolist in the US and Europe - says this
is "unfair".

......the irony clearly escapes Microsoft....

"The market" includes governments tired of having no choice....

http://news.com.com/2100-1016-507206...t=dtx&tag=ntop

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

this quote is from steve of Sat, 06 Sep 2003 15:31 :
> You have to laugh about this one.
>
> Monpolist Microsoft is reacting to 3 Asian governments deciding they need
> to jointly develop a freely available open source operating system in
> order to provide themselves with a choice.
>
> Microsoft - a convicted illegal monopolist in the US and Europe - says
> this is "unfair".
>
> .....the irony clearly escapes Microsoft....
>
> "The market" includes governments tired of having no choice....
> http://news.com.com/2100-1016-507206...t=dtx&tag=ntop

Yes - interesting.

The article says MS say governments should keep out of it. Yet MS gets the
government involved when it suits them, for example, in Peru ...
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,54141,00.html

Of course, this is simply another case where MS seeks to deny customers any
choice. The sad part is that they may succeed. It is possible that MS
will lobby the US government (recipient of MS generous bribes / political
donations) to pressure those Asian governments to change their minds, as
part of some trade deal, perhaps?


Peter

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

Peter wrote:

> Of course, this is simply another case where MS seeks to deny
> customers any choice. The sad part is that they may succeed. It is
> possible that MS will lobby the US government (recipient of MS
> generous bribes / political donations) to pressure those Asian
> governments to change their minds, as part of some trade deal,
> perhaps?

Or equally likely is the WTO will rule that it's a breach of existing trade
rules.

But, what if tose governments were to require open _data_ formats, that
would not be a breach of WTO rules, and would achieve much the the same
effect as requiring open _source_ .

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

arguably this is unfair only if those countries legislate that this new
operating system is the standard for the country and should be the only
option selected, if that is the case then it's clearly anticompetitive and
should be challenged.

unlike MS and the browser war - MS just gave away the software, it did not
stop people from using Netscape or others but the masses decided that IE was
good enough and couldn't be bothered downloading anything else....



"steve" <steve@unowut.org> wrote in message
news:9yc6b.4666$cg.207050@news02.tsnz.net...
> You have to laugh about this one.
>
> Monpolist Microsoft is reacting to 3 Asian governments deciding they need
to
> jointly develop a freely available open source operating system in order
to
> provide themselves with a choice.
>
> Microsoft - a convicted illegal monopolist in the US and Europe - says
this
> is "unfair".
>
> .....the irony clearly escapes Microsoft....
>
> "The market" includes governments tired of having no choice....
>
> http://news.com.com/2100-1016-507206...t=dtx&tag=ntop

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

Rupert allegedly said:

> unlike MS and the browser war - MS just gave away the software, it did not
> stop people from using Netscape or others but the masses decided that IE
> was good enough and couldn't be bothered downloading anything else....

The masses didn't know there was anything else.

My non-PC-literate neighbours all confirm this. :-)

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

"steve" wrote
> The masses didn't know there was anything else.
> My non-PC-literate neighbours all confirm this. :-)

so Microsoft is at fault for the masses lack of education... right.

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

"T.N.O." <news@dave.net.nz> wrote in message news:3f5bda4e$1@news.iconz.co.nz...
> "steve" wrote
> > The masses didn't know there was anything else.
> > My non-PC-literate neighbours all confirm this. :-)
>
> so Microsoft is at fault for the masses lack of education... right.
>

Did you know that MS is being sued for anti-competitive practices for not promoting
Linux with their Windows XP product?

Tony.

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 21:27:57 +1200, Anthony Neville wrote:

> Did you know that MS is being sued for anti-competitive practices for not
> promoting Linux with their Windows XP product?


Good!

Didn't know that... but am pleased to hear it!

Lennier

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

On Tue, 09 Sep 2003 00:04:19 +1200, Anthony Neville wrote:

> Yet
> somehow I believe given enough resources, you'd stoop low enough to be the
> flag bearer for any company that tried it.

I think that I'd "fly the flag" for any company which was honest,
reputable, and encouraged cooperation and openness. And I'd put the
boot into any company which discouraged the same.

Micro$oft has not exhibited any of those qualities - certainly not in
recent years as it has tried to obfuscate the faults of it's software and
throw FUD around about non-Micro$oft programmes and systems.

Lennier

Re: Microsoft: Asia not playing fair over OS
 

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 23:19:59 +1200, Anthony Neville wrote:

>> > Did you know that MS is being sued for anti-competitive practices for
>> > not
>> promoting Linux with their Windows XP product?
>>
>> nope... post the link.
>
> I made it up... Western justice has become so riddled with corruption
> such a scenario would be quite believable.

NZ's judicial system is NOT "so riddled with corruption"!

Lennier