Jason Langston
04-20-2000, 09:58 AM
Our government implemented anti-monopoly laws to protect us, the consumer.
How has Microsoft in any way harmed us? Why is Microsoft so successful? Is
it because their "monopoly" has forced us into purchasing their product because
we have no other choice? Last time I checked Navigator is still available
to any who want to use it. Apple is still selling Macs and there is entire
community of graphic designers, artists and others who would consider it
heresy to own, much less approve of a Wintel machine.
In our capitalistic economy, the consumer has the largest say in what succeeds
or fails. MS Office as individual pieces was slow in taking off. Everyone,
myself included, preferred Word Perfect and Lotus. What happened? Microsoft
made several slightly inferior products work together. When my boss discovered
that he could "paste" a spreadsheet into his Word document he was sold. As
a developer, I'm sold on the idea that I can use one language to develop
with any product in the suite.
Why do I like IE better? Is it because it comes bundled with the OS? No,
it's because in five minutes I can have a web page that is dynamically linked
to an Access database and published to our intranet. I look like a hero because
I solved a major internal communication and data sharing problem, and I didn't
even break a sweat to do it. If Netscape can make that happen with their
browser, and can make it faster for me or easier for users, then I'll become
a Navigator fan.
How has Microsoft in any way harmed us? Why is Microsoft so successful? Is
it because their "monopoly" has forced us into purchasing their product because
we have no other choice? Last time I checked Navigator is still available
to any who want to use it. Apple is still selling Macs and there is entire
community of graphic designers, artists and others who would consider it
heresy to own, much less approve of a Wintel machine.
In our capitalistic economy, the consumer has the largest say in what succeeds
or fails. MS Office as individual pieces was slow in taking off. Everyone,
myself included, preferred Word Perfect and Lotus. What happened? Microsoft
made several slightly inferior products work together. When my boss discovered
that he could "paste" a spreadsheet into his Word document he was sold. As
a developer, I'm sold on the idea that I can use one language to develop
with any product in the suite.
Why do I like IE better? Is it because it comes bundled with the OS? No,
it's because in five minutes I can have a web page that is dynamically linked
to an Access database and published to our intranet. I look like a hero because
I solved a major internal communication and data sharing problem, and I didn't
even break a sweat to do it. If Netscape can make that happen with their
browser, and can make it faster for me or easier for users, then I'll become
a Navigator fan.