Fud, Fud and Fud et al

[Evan Leibovitch]

John McGregor wrote:
> While it seems that M$ is resorting to historical methods of media
> manipulation, their efforts don't seem to be generating the desired
> effect, aat least according to this article in the Financial times:
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e14962ce-4734-11db-83df-0000779e2340.html
>   
Withholding (or slowing the introduction of) Vista from Europe really
only hurts Microsoft. XP does what most people need, and MS needs the
upgrade money more than people need the upgrade.

Also consider that the longer MS delays Vista use worldwide, the longer
ISVs may delay their introduction of Vista products, making the upgrade
pitch harder in countries that _do_ have it available. Hardware
companies will be able to buy time and sell non-Vista compliant gear.
And, of course, the whole situation exposes the bully mentality even
further and helps demonstrate to the public why MS is an unworthy supplier.

Remember the whole City of Munich thing? The more Microsoft tried to
kill the Linux the deal, the more they demonstrated that Linux was a
better choice.

Having said that, I'm not sure if bundling is per-se an anti-competitive
practise unless it resembles dumping. It *is* conceivable that MS may be
adding in more features to justify the value of Vista, a totally
legitimate activity IMO. It's the locking out of competing alternatives,
technically through hidden APIs or non-technically through OEM/reseller
agreements, that are anti-competitive.

After all, consider what's "bundled" in a typical Linux distribution.
Are Linux distributors being anti-competitive against Adobe by including
Xpdf, Ghostscript and Gimp? Is the installation-on-request of CLAM
anti-competitive? If Linux distributions can include search engines,
anti-virus and other tools that hurt sales from vendors of those
products, why can't Microsoft?

- Evan
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