Your feelings or thoughts on the Microsoft Results.

[kareem]

What are your feelings about Microsoft? What do you think will happen to us as a result of the courts decision? Will there be anyone favorably or adversely affected?

[dkozloski]

There isn't going to be diddley squat happen except that the whole thing is the attornies enrichment project. There will be a lot of posturing by politicians on both sides and a lot of bull feathers thrown around but in the end nothing will change. The news outlets will try to make something out of it because they think they are supposed to, but we will all wind up bored as hell with the the whole subject.

[chipbgt]

<--- already bored with it

[stodge]

I'm bored with it too.

[hd581]

Now is a good time to be an attorney for MS. They're going to be well paid for a few years...

[Konan555]

What is interesting is that MSIE and it's O/S's are to be in 2 seperate companys.

Have Microsoft finaly got one in the eye from netscape? Will windows and IE have to be prized back apart? The one genuine inovation MS seem to have made and the American DoJ have messed it up.

[tonym]

The US legal system is so corrupt and screwed up that one cannot trust almost any decision made in the system, let alone one that will dramatically change the future of business in the way we know it.

You want to talk about a stinkin' monopoly -- then let's see some court action on the cable companies. I can only get one cable service here now, and they're squeezing the life out of their customers. They almost charge you for looking at the overhead calbe lines outside your house!!! I'd have a better chance of having broccoli grow out of my eye than seeing the justice department/courts take on the cable companies (the media!!!).

Oh, what a world...


Tony

P.S. I hope MS shoves it up the proverbial **** of the US government and moves that 40 or so miles north to Canada. There's a government that really wants them.

[This message has been edited by tonym (edited 06-07-2000).]

[blubomber]

Well, i am really not going to worry about it right now since they still have to go through the appeals process that can take up to two years. In the mean time Microsoft is going to do some sort of filling so that they do not have to make any changes until the appeal process is over. it seems that microsoft is pretty confident that they will win the appeal. So who knows and i am not going to worry about it now. I just want to try Windows Me.

[BBA]

It is a shame...the only reason they were brought to court is not contributing to the DNC.

I don't even near consider them a monopoly...I don't care what the judge said in his political correctness! MS makes windows and MS makes IE...MS can do with them what ever it wants...and if combining them works...they own it anyway!

Now...If I see Netscrape bundled with Redfat...can I sue them too?

[Dputiger]

Actually, it's very interesting if you look at the timing of Bill Gates's discussions with the Democratic party against the government taking action against Microsoft.

Namely, every time Gates has refused a request from Clinton to hire lobbyists or champion causes, a fresh round of Microsoft 'investigations' have occured. Now I'm not a Clinton conspiracy theorist or a Microsoft-lover, but it doesn't take much to realize that Microsoft is the world's biggest corporation and Gates's the world's richest man--and yet the political party he supports sees almost NONE of that money.

Coincedence? I think not.

But....I hate the idea of smashing Microsoft. After all, if you had to pick, which would you rather compete against? A big slow whale (Microsoft today) or four fast sharks? (a broken-apart Microsoft).

[pickel]

I'm not a big fan of either entity. I could really care less what happens Microsoft, per se. However , there were some serious infractions and corporate backstabing done by Gates and co. For this there should be some restitution made. Exactly what, I don't know.
Maybe 1000 hours community service to all the masterminds invovled.Picking up trash on the side of the road. Something of a more humiliating nature. You can't hurt him in his pocket book, hurt him in his pride. I'm sure everyone would have more feelings about this if THEIR company was closed down and you lost your job on account of his misdeeds. Put your self in those people's shoes and calculate your reaction.

[welsh wizard]

don't make any differance what you think of MS, it still won't change the fact that most pension funds have taken a big nock due to fall in share prices as a result of split up ruling, and with MS going to fight to the bitter end pensions will take evn more of a hammering http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif
as for split you may as well take MS and put a bullit in it, after all you shoot horses don't you when there crippled.
WW

[U-96]

I agree with dkozloski.
Making Windows OS open source was the only punishment that could ever really benefit the consumer and the industry.

U-96

[akaBruno]

In the short run the consumer will probably bear the brunt w/ higher prices (to pay for the lawyers).
In the long run??? we'll see... it may prove to be good for the consumer. That's what anti-trust laws are about.

[medo]

Hello,

Wait and see!


Medo

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Red Rage]

wow, i'm surprized...

I'm not sure if breaking MS up is the best solution, but it is a solution. Something had to be done to stop (or atleast reduce) MS from abusing their power.

I'm not a fan of most Microsoft Products (i did like office 97 though), but I do have to admit that what MS did was pretty amazing.. going from next to nothing to the richest company in the nation, now thats something.

BTW: did any one see Bill's Press conference yesterday? an almost exact quote:
"The government was not clear on their wording. What do they mean by Internet Explorer?"

Um...Yeah... Bill must be starting to feel the presure or something.. yeah thats the only reasonable explination for him make'n **** outa himself.

~Joe

[bdunn]

It means nothing unless its actually implimented. If ever it will take years in appeals and I think eventually a republican Attorney General will just drop it.

I also think that Mr Gates will be calling John Corzine for advice on buying the senate election.

[ScaryBinary]

I think splitting MS up was pretty stupid. Making them open source thier Windows code would have been a better solution.

A lot of people seem to be anti-MS nowadays, but I think most of us would have to admit that they've produced some pretty nifty products - not perfect of course, but imagine having to use a typewriter (with no spellcheck!!!) instead of Word or graph paper and accounting tablets instead of Excel...I really appreciate MS now!

Breaking them up (if it ever does really happen....) will only make things more complicated. 1st of all, splitting them doesn't promise that any other OS will become more popular. 2ndly, a split doesn't promise that MS won't "borrow" someone else's idea and improve upon it, once again making them the most popular. 3rdly, is anyone going to force the non-OS portion of MS to make software for other OSs? I doubt they would, so you'd still have to buy Windows to run MS software, except then it would be more expensive because of additional research and communication issues that didn't exist when the company was one entity.

People will really start hating MS after the split!

ScaryBinary

[This message has been edited by ScaryBinary (edited 06-08-2000).]

[Dreamboat Annie]

I'm Happy! MS has too much control over the market and even on a user level. While Windows is a decent O/S, there's too many options that are hidden from user and unless you know the program inside and out, you can't change many of the defaults. They call it "user friendly", I call them control freaks! I think consumers should have more option available to them without inconvenience or hassle!

Here in Seattle there is much debate on how this will affect the local economy, but I think that it can only get better. After all, if the break up into more than one company, I think that each division has more potential for growth and prosperity (more employment opportunities). Bill Gates is a very smart man, and I think he can make it work to his advantage. I sure hope his appeal is denied!

Just my four cents worth!

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

All these company's whining and complaining started out on their own also. They had this little dream that in the back of their heads, that they might be able to de-throne MS. Now that they realize there is no way in he!! that they can do that, so they go whine to our corrupted Gov't.

I personally think it's all a big joke. The Gov't should have Zero say in what MS does. MS founded it's own platform. Windoze and I.E. were designed by them. It's theirs.

And what really get's me....... What O/S are all of these lame arsed lawyers and Gov't mongers using? I'll give ya one guess.

No I am not a MS lover. I just thinks it's bull **** that our pathetic Gov't has any say in this. For crying out loud...... It's computer software. An O/S. It's not like MicroSoft is making software for Ballistic Missles and selling it to other Third World country's. They are making software for the amusement of family's and for everyday businesses.

Jim

[shadow]

I like someone's idea of them moving MS to Canada. We'll suck Bill dry in no time with our taxes. Send him on up.

[Meat Puppet]

The only thing that will come out of this bull. Is that now you'll have people paying 49 bucks for Internet Explorer 8.0. Gee thanks for breaking up the monopoly. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Just because IE is no longer intergrated will not change how Microsoft constructs their Os's. If you believe that then you've been watching television way too much.

You see what microsoft has done with add on software in the past. Plus, Office, etc.. So things are suddenly going to change. Now that some dipstick on a bench said so. "Dream on man" Im venting here and I apologize in advance for any feathers ruffeled.

But truth being truth, This whole monopoly deal stunk in the first place and it dont smell any better now, that its supposedly over.. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

[jokostel]

if anything the blatantly sadistic janet reno lovin' judge made the operating system side more powerfull the whole idea of this was to end a monopoly which in reality can't be un monopoliozed....becuase of a 100+ year old law .. WHAT OTHER company in the world has done as much or more for the world and microsoft... they pretty much molded the computer industry into what we know today....

[welsh wizard]

JAT, whats to stop MS saying Sod it and shutting up shop in the USA and relocating to some other country,think of all the foriegn exchange the US would lose.
WW

[Prospero]

I'm more interested in the other restrictions. Microsoft has used it's monopoly position to force OEM's to include only it's own applications with it's OS. If you want to sell a PC with windows, you have to use office and IE. That is an abuse of power. Freeing up the OEMs's to sell us what we want instead of Microsoft, is what I believe is the important part.

[narayan]

Ok, well... the government attacks Microsoft because they make too much money. The government nearly drives the tobacco industry into bankrupcy. What's next? Guns? SUV's? What is the govenrnment doing? OUR OWN GOVERNMENT is destroying private businesses in this country. I think it sucks.

[Biff]

I dont really know what Mr Softie did wrong, isn't it the American dream to grow big and wealthy? I would think the name of the game is to crush your competition! I don't think splitting the company up will hurt that much, it didn't hurt AT & T in 84 giving out the source code would hiner MS

[bub]

Let's see... Netscape has always been free to the consumer. MicroSoft puts a free browzer in Windows and our crooked government has a cow!

[Nanea]

I believe Microsoft wanted to be SPLITTED.
It's better than splitting the shares in stocks. And I also believe Bill took on another Software Company. It's called
Open Source. He will eventually make Office
Suites run Under "Microsoft Linux". They will have a Linux OS Version like Corel Did.
Microsoft Linux will probably open source,
but Microsoft Office for Linux will not be
open source.

[dexmax]

cases similar to this has been going on for decades. frankly, i'm bored with it. it keeps going in cycles. and we're the victims.

[mgordon99]

Bub,

Netscape has not always been free to consumers. Only after Microsoft made IE free did Netscape follow suit.