m$ to Google: do not dare take away from us what isn't ours

[Peter]

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006, Brandon Sandrowicz wrote:

>> It's much simpler: they think that they are strong enough to fight on two 
>> fronts. Losers.
>
> Microsoft isn't "shifting focus" to Google as their mortal enemy.  Microsoft 
> is just competing in all of the marketplaces that it has its tentacles in. 
> Microsoft has its hands in lots of cookie jars, and it's going to fight for 
> all the cookies in all of those jars.  But while the marketplace would have 
> people play "rock/paper/scissors" to determine who gets each cookie, 
> Microsoft would rather just pull out a glock and get all the cookies.
>
> Think of it.  Microsoft is competing with Nintendo and Sony in the console 
> market.  They compete with Logitech (and arguably a couple other companies)

m$ was once upon a time poised to be the 'first'. This goes back to 'The 
Road Ahead' and MS Basic and Altair 8000. But at some time after that 
bean-counters and greed took over. Ever since, they are second comers, 
second best and rely on millions of customers as beta testers. This 
company is not in IT. It is in moneymaking. The fact that some of its 
products have an IT flavor is a coincidence that will likely be remedied 
by the slow but sure demise of the PC platform, heralded by the 
ever-decreasing margins in this business. Everything remotely connected 
to IT that makes money, they will try to claim a stake in. The first 
recorded plagiatus, err, embrace and extension was the Apple vs. Windows 
GUI Look & Feel lawsuit. Followed by text editors, spreadsheets (123 
where are you?) and lots of others, including a small bite of Java, and 
a large bite of a company once called Netscape that no longer exists. 
There are hundreds of thousands of programmers out there who saw their 
careers cut down in their best years due to the shenanigans of this 
company. Now one has Vista looking exactly like Aero, with glass flavor. 
live.com looks like Google. Nintendo and Sony made money with games 
consoles, so they joined that too. TV/networking/set top boxes ? Joined. 
Apparel, keyboards, mice ? Joined. The only thing that matters for these 
guys is the bottom line. For a fortune 500 company that is clearly the 
way to go. But I'd think twice about using their products for anything 
long-term or serious. Perhaps it is not an accident that most renowned 
and reputable engineering and technology companies are not so rich, not 
to mention that their CEOs are not so rich. It has something to do with 
the risky business of engineering, r&d and testing expenses, and their 
commitment to customers over 10,20,30 years and more, and responsability 
on par with the requirements of government IT, education, and archival. 
That does not leave so much money for unbelievable publicity expenses, 
PR, flamboyant speeches that would doom the credibility of any other 
kind of business, and largesse in charity, I think.

Peter
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