Microsoft Must be held accountable.

[Keith Mastin]

<snip>
> Ok. Sorry, I'll be serious. I'll grant you, it is a fact that anyone can
> form a corp, but *not* anyone has the same advantages in forming that
> corp. I mean, c'mon, do you really think some little startup would stand
> a snowball's chance in hell against the monsters that dominate the
> business landscape? What is the failure rate for new small businesses,
> like 90%? It is not an even playing field out there, and won't be until
> some of the power of large corporate entities is deconstructed, not
> by increasing government regulation, mind you, but by *decreasing*
> government protection of large corporate interests, for example where it
> applies to Intellectual Property law.

I have to disagree after being in business as an incorporated entity for a
while now. Small businesses have it all over the big boys in terms of
versatility. We can offer competition where none exists, we can offer a
range of product offerings relatively unencumbered by contractual
obligations, and we can exploit small niche markets with a diversity that
the big boys drool over.

The failure rates of startups is almost 100% if you wait long enough, but
that doesn't mean anything except that some people can hang on a little
tighter than others when the going gets rough. I've gone flat broke here 3
times since starting out, and every time the recovery was just a little
bit stronger.

I suspect that if I was to wait until the government made things easier
and M$ got out of my way I'd still be working for someone else. So, you
can wait for that to happen, or you can do some things to try to make that
happen. Me, I prefer to just jump in and make things work. The obstacles
just make it interesting and fun.

>> > MS has it down cold ;-)
>>
>> You still haven't told me what would happen if Microsoft disappeared
>> in the next year (or at least a lawsuit ordered that no more than 50%
>> of all new computers must use Windows).  Isn't this your dream?
>
> Hell ya! I'd have the greatest job in the world, running around like a
> madman installing Linux on all those suddenly Windows-less machines, the
> internet would function more smoothly, there would be rejoicing in the
> streets, and Slashdot would disappear in a puff of irrelevancy. ;-)

I gotta say that's a bit narrow. First off, M$ would fold and re-open
under another name. The new corp would buy out the assets of the old corp
at a firesale price (and at a huge profit to themselves), and nothing
would change.

If Redmond, Utah and all the other M$ offices were to suddenly disappear
in an Al-Qaida/Iraqi/North Korean/McDonalds/IBM fit of rage though, and M$
was suddenly nowhere to be found to support their OSes...

-The script-kiddies would be having a field day with the next global exploit.
-MSCEs would be getting rich writing and selling patches.
-PC sales (and prices) would drop, hitting small computer business that
rely on this revenue stream.
-Macintosh sales will boom overnight. Steve Jobs will suddenly become the
most hated man on the planet.
-Many networks and domains that rely on M$ would never be seen again...
no, not all of them will convert.

And what's stopping you from installing linux on those windows machines
right now, but your attitude? Can't be done? I do it all the time. Have
you converted at least one computer in every home of all your family
members, or would you rather admit that just maybe linux isn't for
everyone, hm?

-- 
Keith
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