Last message on previous page:
From your link:

As I said, Lotus moved on to mail and didn't focus on their 1-2-3 which is why it failed. Microsoft developed something better, Lotus didn't respond, thus they lost their market share.

Your other links proved worthless in reading. The one guy sounds like a fricking conspiracy theorist.

AOL used Microsoft's browser AFTER the DOJ breakup which Microsoft released their code to everyone. So, fault AOL for that one, not MS, they did as told.

I'm really not impressed.. it does look like you scrambled to find anything that remotely held a candle to your ramblings.

Whatever.. We should give you the nickname Spider Monkey, courtesy of the "noob" who showed how poor your research truly is.

As I said, Lotus moved on to mail and didn't focus on their 1-2-3 which is why it failed. Microsoft developed something better, Lotus didn't respond, thus they lost their market share.

Your other links proved worthless in reading. The one guy sounds like a fricking conspiracy theorist.

AOL used Microsoft's browser AFTER the DOJ breakup which Microsoft released their code to everyone. So, fault AOL for that one, not MS, they did as told.

I'm really not impressed.. it does look like you scrambled to find anything that remotely held a candle to your ramblings.

Whatever.. We should give you the nickname Spider Monkey, courtesy of the "noob" who showed how poor your research truly is.You should take a long walk off of a short pier too.

1) BeOS: You said, "BeOS? MS put them out? I think not." You linked to Wikipedia and that didn't seem to mention much except the final Palm Pilot thing. That article didn't even mention Jean-Louis one single time. HERE is an alternate article that follows the issues. BeOS could never get a foot hold since MS was and still is a MONOPOLY. They attempted to move to imbeded devices but by then it was to late. BeOS was murdered.

2) AOL: You said Netscape was the heart of AOL! It is not and has not been since version 3. AOL aquired Netscape and used it for AOL for the MAC. So here you were wrong Riser and you brought both Netscape and AOL up. You said that, "AOL.. hey, they were good but they kept adding too much to their interface.. " I don't even know what AOL used before version 3 but the following ones were all IE. So your wrong about AOL and BeOS.

3) Netscape: MS based IE on Netscape Navigator way back when. So Netscape was sunk. Netscape is purchased by AOL but at the same time AOL agrees to use IE for 7 years. MS became partners with AOL and now is even deeper since Warner Brothers is a partner in AACS LA

4) DX is a big issue and you do know why. Since MS owns it no company can compete with MS for PC games. At best Linux can use Wine Emulation but the games are not the same. You are all looking to a bright future filled with DX10 video cards yet this pushes Linux further to the rear.

5) Lotus 123:

6) Good Business: Good business can be two things. Good as in good for all parties or good as in it's good to be MS. MS is a monopoly so until they are taken down they will enjoy basking in the riches of the beast they created. Sure they pay OK and they also higher H1-B VISA programers by the truck load. (Don't worry I will double check all quotes from now on) Gates claimed the limit of 65K workers a year was too small... ARTICLE I don't see how that helps America but I'm sure that you can twist that around Riser. Regardless if being a monopoly and having the BILLIONS is good business then so be it. Is it good business?

You do know that there are games that can run on both the Open GL system, and DirectX? But the standard is DirectX. Most games are built for DX. Explain that.What?

Ah never mind. You and I will never see eye to eye anyways. All I get from these discussions is a good laugh, and more material for geek jokes.

Suit yourself I just don't understand what you're asking me to talk about? I know there are few games that are multi platform. I know most games require DX and Windows. I know Microsoft owns DX and I know that devlopment takes time and money. Why write a game for *nix when Windows is the only game. Why spend more money and time to port code so a few hackers can play games. Why do anything when you can stick with Bull & Skeve and make big bucks. If anything DX adds to MSes MONOPOLY and you're all waiting for the DX10 cards to come out. "Nation be dammed I want to play Crysis now!" That about sums it no? or are you talking about open GL?

Also, since IE is such a monopoly, explain how FireFox is closing the gap between it and IE. MS doesn't in any way stop you from using another web browser if that is your choice. Now, you'd have a point if MS actively prevented you from running other browsers...

Do you mean a point in relationship to Netscape and AOL or about MS being a "Fluffy Bunny" regardless of any browser? Sure the current one is Firefox and as I remember IE had a big fat buffer over run issue and people were being directed to use Firefox. So "die hacking attempt" hurt IE. Now if you look closely at IE7 you can almost make out the little Firefox imbeded in the corner....Ha Ill bet you looked. In time MS will destroy Firefox too.

So if a company does something right, No other company should be allowed to use that for inspiration? Imagine a car company is the first to implement airbags in cars, saving lots of lives. Now by your logic, no other car company (especially the large corporations like GM, FORD and Daimler Chrysler who have a firm grip on the market) should be allowed to implement that feature?

Or, saying it differently, you place the interest of the small underdog company over the interest of the paying consumer!? And to support that thought you use the big corporations' alleged monopoly position.

Following all these threads I have done a little soul searching and have tried various 'alternatives' to MS recently. Linux especially is often touted as the 'good guy' alternative, with the Open Source philosophy behind it. Now with the best will in the world I cannot see how that would a serious alternative any time soon. First of, there are so many versions (or 'distros') that the very thing it stands for (Open Source) is also it's biggest enemy towards market share gain. I have tried several 'distros' in the last couple of week, but not one, I repeat NOT ONE!, would install on my PC without hassle; Ubuntu (touted as the user friendly distro) gave an error code followed by a reboot, without any hint of what to do to solve it. So I tried Sabayon (touted as the performance distro with a native aero-like interface). Again, it would not install. After nearly a week of searching on various forums I finally managed to get it installed (using a Vesa VGA driver), but with the best will in the world I could not get my Geforce 8800 installed, despite drivers being available from nVidia (who said again that vista's DRM would kill support for Linux drivers? they're there, go look 'em up...). Sabayon uses the phrase 'it just works', but after a week of frustration and however much I wanted to give it a fair shot 'it just didn't work'. If Linux wants to be a Windows alternative, it has to let go of the whole elitist console commands, and offer mouse driven installers with a GUI and a trouble shooter.

MS isn't killing-off Linux, Linux is killing-off Linux. I am an experienced computer user, and have used several different OS' in the past 20 years. Is MS a monopoly because they have 'killed-off' competitors, used hostile take-overs and stole competitors ideas to obtain that position? Or is MS in their dominant position because no one has put up a viable alternative (and I mean an alternative with support for a distant future over several years, companies/individuals don't change their entire software environment based on one hit program or fancy distro)?

And as long as Apple maintains their stance that 'Apple only runs on Apple' (IE last generation PC components, DRMed to a point that only those will run OSX), only for the sake of maintaing the 'stability crown' (if it only runs on four different configurations, there is only so much that can go wrong), they are basically their own obstacle towards a bigger market share, MS has nothing to do with that.

Why aren't any games developped for Linux or OSX? Because MS owns DX? Or because Apple hasn't put in any effort to offer any good development tools that would make it interesting to develop for their platform (surely with the user install base Apple has at the moment, still millions, and the severe lack of game competition on that platform, this creates a huge incentive for a game developer to develop for that platform, instead of for an overcrowded market like windows?). And Linux is still such an archaic bunch of non supported and non unified distros (as it has been for years), that developing a commercial product is a severe risk for any developer. Open Source sounds noble, but for a developer that wants to make money on their products I don't see how this is a benefit...?

I would like nothing more than to have a choice of alternatives to the windows OS, alternatives that still allow me to freely choose my hardware, and alternatives to would show a commitment to offer support and compatibility on a long term basis. No such alternative exists today, nor has any company aspired to offer such an alternative...Is MS to blame for that? If Windows is really such a horrible OS, surely there is a HUGE market opportunity for anything that can compete? All companies have to do is stop creating 'niche markets' for their software/OS and focus on the big prize; average Joe...

Sorry for the long post (again), but I think a lot people are bashing MS because it seems like the thing to do, forgetting that the PC market is what it is today, largely thanks to MS and its long term investments...

Nice reply.. I feel like I should make this a sticky or something now. May have to discuss this with the guys to see if they think it would be a fair sticky.

Very well said.

Hehe, thanks... You guys at THG aren't by any chance hiring aren't you?

Hehe, thanks... You guys at THG aren't by any chance hiring aren't you? I would love to comment but I'm retired! I can mention *inux and I have no issues running it. I'm sorry that you can't get it up ( you're *inux system I mean) but eventually you may. For some reason I completely forgot what you posted, sorry! It must be because I have to grab some lunch? Wait, I only read the first and last scentences, Oh well.

Kisses

You haven't been censured, that much I am sure of. You've been strongly advised to lay off having every post of yours be a Vista bashing post. You can speak your mind, but within reason.

What's the matter? A post without conspiray theories about MS, DRM and the end of the PC as we know it boring you? Boring you so much that the only response you can come up with is a derogatory comment wrapped in a not so funny wisecrack? Fine, be that way... Ignorance is bliss, I guess...

You are confused... Censored would look like this....

If you like to eat candy well $$$$$$$$ is great.

Censured
adj 1: officially rebuked or found blameworthy; "the censured
senator did not run for another term"
2: officially and strongly disapproved; "the censured conflict
of interest"; "her condemned behavior" [syn: condemned]

Riser,

you are the moderator --- why are you giving opinion on this and why do you further think it should become sticky --- sticky being why microsoft is better????? Maybe microsoft is better --- but why not let forum sort it out for itself rather than have influence from moderator???

I said essentially the same thing, just not in so many words... where's my sticky?



I use Linux from time to time. I know what a pain in the ass it is to install / configure. Yes, it gives you some powerful customization options, but unfortunately for someone that is new to Linux, it doesn't give you user-friendly means to access them. The community is great and extremely helpful (Linux_0 from the Linux forum here is an excellent example); but the last thing users want is to rely on someone else constantly for advice.

Once you get past the installation / configuration, then Linux is pretty much like Windows. Programs open and run the same way... so ease of use isn't the big problem with Linux. Getting to that point is the problem. When Linux breaks, I hear it's incredibly easy to fix and it can be fixed without reloading the entire system. It's great for those that know what they're doing; not so great for Grandpa at midnight when he decides to mess with something he shouldn't.

To everyone including moderator,

there does not seem much to offer here as moderator is now also taking sides --- i do not mind moderator taking a stand when rules are being violated--- and then he should only say what rules are being violated and give warning to offending members --- I dont think it is appropriate for moderator to take a side for or against the topics at hand--- if moderator wants to voice opinion - he should do so under a different name other than the name "moderator" as it has great influence on opinion of others and should not necessarily dictate which topics become top priority because "moderator" feels they should.

What the hell is going on here.