Comment Complete Crap (Score 1) 676
If OS/2 had won and driven MS out of Windows, and If OS/2 had a legally determined monopoly (as the courts have already ruled in the case of Windows), and If IBM forced OEMs to exclusively distribute OS/2, then, yes, MS could sue IBM for the illegal exercise of monopoly power.
Be literally could not give it's OS away because of MS's license agreements - they offered BeOS for free to any OEM who would distribute it. Only one (Fujitsu, I believe) took them up on it, and Fj was told by MS that, because of their license, they could not let the PC boot to anything other that windows, and could not make BeOS visible at all to the user. As I recall, they shipped a pamphlet with instructions for how to enable the dual-boot capability, but really, how many folks do you think are going to go in and muck with their BIOS?
What MS has done is NOT legal. When you have a monopoly, you have to play "nicer". The fact is, under current market conditions it is virtually impossible to market a commercial OS for x86. Linux doesn't count - it isn't commercial.
Unpopular opinion? No. Ignorance. Plain and simple.
Be literally could not give it's OS away because of MS's license agreements - they offered BeOS for free to any OEM who would distribute it. Only one (Fujitsu, I believe) took them up on it, and Fj was told by MS that, because of their license, they could not let the PC boot to anything other that windows, and could not make BeOS visible at all to the user. As I recall, they shipped a pamphlet with instructions for how to enable the dual-boot capability, but really, how many folks do you think are going to go in and muck with their BIOS?
What MS has done is NOT legal. When you have a monopoly, you have to play "nicer". The fact is, under current market conditions it is virtually impossible to market a commercial OS for x86. Linux doesn't count - it isn't commercial.
Unpopular opinion? No. Ignorance. Plain and simple.
