GUI

James Knott james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org
Sat Nov 29 04:21:01 UTC 2003


Anton Markov wrote:
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> Hi James and Phillip,
> 
> I completely understand what you are saying, but I don't see how that is
> illegal.  Let's look at an example...
> 
> You own a Chrysler dealership.  The business has never really picked up
> as Chryslers are not too popular.  One day you get a call from Honda.
> They offer you their newest, coolest Honda Civic with all the latest
> bells and whistles (the Civic is considered popular, but a minority of
> people say it's junk) for a good reseller price.  The only condition is
> that you must become an exclusive Honda dealer.  You happen to like
> Chryslers yourself, and know some people who also do, but you have a
> family to feed, and you need the extra sales the more popular (although
> arguably worse) Honda Civics will generate.  What do you decide?  You
> take the Honda deal.  Now, if you were running the dealership for fun
> rather than profits, or you believe Chryslers will soon become popular,
> you can always refuse the offer and keep selling Chryslers... it's up to
> you.

Ever hear of restraint of trade?

A bit of history.  Back in the early days of the PC, IBM contracted MS 
to supply DOS, which MS bought from Seattle Computer Products.  The deal 
was IBM sold PC-DOS for IBM gear and MS was free to sell to others. 
Fair enough.  Then MS started pushing Windows and telling computer 
vendors that if they wanted DOS, they had to include Windows.  This is 
forced bundling.  If computer vendors didn't take the deal, they didn't 
have an OS to sell with their computers.

After this had been happening long enough, Windows became "popular" and 
vendors had to sell it.  Then MS started requiring vendors to pay for 
licences for all computers sold, even those with a competing OS. 
Imagine if Shell forced the car makers to pay them for the gas in the 
tank of each new car, even if the gas came from another company.  Guess 
who's gas would be in those tanks?

Then, as I mentioned the computer vendors were forced to drop support 
for other than Windows, if they wished to receive competitive prices for 
Windows.  This is where extortion becomes evident.  The sources I 
listed, include several examples.

It got to the point where computer vendors had to play by MS terms or 
not at all.  The result was that any company that tried to offer an 
alternative was punished in a manner that could put them out of business.

There was also the phony "incompatibility" with DR-DOS, that MS 
deliberately put into Windows 3.  There was a similar problem with the 
MSCDEX CD-ROM drivers, that would check to see if they were being run in 
OS/2 and then crap out.

As I said, read those books and you might have a different view.


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