I support open source 100% but the analysis in the article is very flawed.
If I have an application for any os, I have the same set of worries no matter what. If its windows yes I do have to worry about microsoft developing their own and giving it away. However how many times has microsoft decided to give away stuff ? If its linux I have to worry about someone reverse engineering my product and making an open source knockoff. In the linux case if their is damage to my IP rights, who am I going to sue coll
Imbedded Tiny Basic into MS DOS - removing all language competitors
Actually IBM put BASICA in the ROM of the XTs, Microsoft put GWBasic in with DOS. Of course, we're all stuck using GWBasic now, as no language competitors exist.
Included primitive Games with windows
That's right, we're limited to playing solitare. Damn those linux gamers, with their fancy Wolfenstein 3D that Windows users don't have. Damn microsoft for limiting us to minesweeper.
Included Lan management software into the operating system, causing pain to 3com, Novell, and others.
Damn MS for including SNMP, because no other operating system does that.
Gave away the browser, causing serious financial strain to Netscape
Damn MS, for killing netscape. There's no other browser but for IE, errr, and Netscape, and Mozilla, and Opera.... Oh, and damn Netscape for killing Mosaic.
Bought Hotmail (free email), and gave away browser-based email.
Damn Microsoft, Yahoo can't produce webmail and give it away free now.
Included a bazillion features into the office suite, eliminating lots of specialized software applications.
Damn Microsoft for adding features, because all I really want from Office is notepad with a different title bar. Text formatting and tables aren't important to me. And damn those cheeky open office people for doing the same thing, but claiming Open is good.
Gave away SQL for small apps, in the form of MSDE.
Damn microsoft, now there are no other database engines out there. Except for Oracle, and a few free ones I read about somewhere. But the free ones are for commies anyway.
Microsoft has made a practice of eliminating competition by giving away software! Where have you been?
Great, so lets stop people giving away software. It's obviously bad. Mr Torvalds, to the dungeon with you. Begin the Minesweeper torture!
I think this is one of the smartest posts I've seen on slashdot for a while. When you think about it, the OSS Community acts a lot like Microsoft, IE giving stuff away for free. Both also try their best to have as much marketshare as possible (although for different reasons).
The question was "How many times has Microsoft given something away", and the answer was essentially "lots of times. Here are some examples." In fact other people gave other examples.
You argue really well, but there's no one here arguing with you. Nice try, but next time read the post, and the context of the message before launching into a point-by-point rebuttal. If you were trying to argue against my point, you would have said in at least one case that Microsoft did NOT
Except almost none of the things mentioned there were given away. They were sold as components of Microsoft's OS or applications. The fact that they were not included as part of earlier versions of Microsoft's products does not mean they are being "given away." It just means that Microsoft has often added features to their applications and operating systems by buying products or stealing ideas from other companies.
The point wasn't that by doing this Microsoft has eliminated innovation in these fields.
The point is simply that Microsoft has introduced new products for their platform which have destroyed the market of existing smaller software producers which already met more or less the same needs.
The reason that the Microsoft products are adopted in these cases, is because either they come free with the operating system, or they are seen as more favorable because of the familiar "Microsoft" name.
Nope. Microsoft did that. They licensed Mosaic for a percentage of the profits from reselling it, then gave it away to drive Netscape out of business - in the process killing Mosaic (any percent of $0 is still $0...).
So I guess you are right, Netscape DID kill Mosaic - by being in Microsofts way. Damn Netscape for being in the way and forcing Microsoft to kill Mosaic while bulldozing them out of the way!
Bought Hotmail (free email), and gave away browser-based
Unix is the worst operating system; except for all others.
-- Berry Kercheval
Living in the past (Score:3, Interesting)
If I have an application for any os, I have the same set of worries no matter what. If its windows yes I do have to worry about microsoft developing their own and giving it away. However how many times has microsoft decided to give away stuff ? If its linux I have to worry about someone reverse engineering my product and making an open source knockoff. In the linux case if their is damage to my IP rights, who am I going to sue coll
How many times has MS given something away???? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see... should we start at the beginning?
Imbedded Tiny Basic into MS DOS - removing all language competitors
Included primitive Games with windows
Included Disk Compression, virtually putting Stacker out of business.
Included Lan management software into the operating system, causing pain to 3com, Novell, and others.
Gave away the browser, causing serious financial strain to Netscape
Bought Hotmail (free email), and gave away browser-based email.
Included
Re:How many times has MS given something away???? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually IBM put BASICA in the ROM of the XTs, Microsoft put GWBasic in with DOS. Of course, we're all stuck using GWBasic now, as no language competitors exist.
Included primitive Games with windows
That's right, we're limited to playing solitare. Damn those linux gamers, with their fancy Wolfenstein 3D that Windows users don't have. Damn microsoft for limiting us to minesweeper.
Included Lan management software into the operating system, causing pain to 3com, Novell, and others.
Damn MS for including SNMP, because no other operating system does that.
Gave away the browser, causing serious financial strain to Netscape
Damn MS, for killing netscape. There's no other browser but for IE, errr, and Netscape, and Mozilla, and Opera .... Oh, and damn Netscape for killing Mosaic.
Bought Hotmail (free email), and gave away browser-based email.
Damn Microsoft, Yahoo can't produce webmail and give it away free now.
Included a bazillion features into the office suite, eliminating lots of specialized software applications.
Damn Microsoft for adding features, because all I really want from Office is notepad with a different title bar. Text formatting and tables aren't important to me. And damn those cheeky open office people for doing the same thing, but claiming Open is good.
Gave away SQL for small apps, in the form of MSDE.
Damn microsoft, now there are no other database engines out there. Except for Oracle, and a few free ones I read about somewhere. But the free ones are for commies anyway.
Microsoft has made a practice of eliminating competition by giving away software! Where have you been?
Great, so lets stop people giving away software. It's obviously bad. Mr Torvalds, to the dungeon with you. Begin the Minesweeper torture!
Re:How many times has MS given something away???? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How many times has MS given something away???? (Score:0)
The question was "How many times has Microsoft given something away", and the answer was essentially "lots of times. Here are some examples." In fact other people gave other examples.
You argue really well, but there's no one here arguing with you. Nice try, but next time read the post, and the context of the message before launching into a point-by-point rebuttal. If you were trying to argue against my point, you would have said in at least one case that Microsoft did NOT
Re:How many times has MS given something away???? (Score:2)
Umm... you completely missed it (Score:0)
The point is simply that Microsoft has introduced new products for their platform which have destroyed the market of existing smaller software producers which already met more or less the same needs.
The reason that the Microsoft products are adopted in these cases, is because either they come free with the operating system, or they are seen as more favorable because of the familiar "Microsoft" name.
While it is less no
Re:How many times has MS given something away???? (Score:1)
Nope. Microsoft did that. They licensed Mosaic for a percentage of the profits from reselling it, then gave it away to drive Netscape out of business - in the process killing Mosaic (any percent of $0 is still $0...).
So I guess you are right, Netscape DID kill Mosaic - by being in Microsofts way. Damn Netscape for being in the way and forcing Microsoft to kill Mosaic while bulldozing them out of the way!
Bought Hotmail (free email), and gave away browser-based