Subject:
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Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 24 Oct 2001 16:52:16 GMT
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Viewed:
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715 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Horst Lehner writes:
> > It has competitors, and effective ones at that. MS is dominant in certain
> > market segments but since there are few or no barriers to entry other than
> > MS competence at making good product, the net result of MS dominance (not
> > monopoly) is that we pay less for OS and app than we would without them.
>
> Pardon me? Operating Systems didn't cost a cent before Microsoft entered the
> game ...
Did you want me to dig up a price sheet for OS/370 circa 1976? It wasn't free.
It cost more than you or I make. UNIX System V wasn't free. BSD was never
free (California taxpayers and DARPA paid for it) Or did you mean PC
operating systems? CP/M wasn't free. TRS/DOS wasn't free. I paid several
hundred dollars for it in 1979. (and worth every penny, at the time, given
the leverage it gave me versus Cassette BASIC)
What are you talking about??? Just because something is free to YOU when you
buy the system it's installed on, or because you can go download it, doesn't
mean it appeared out of thin air. An OS is a good. Goods do not just
miraculously appear. Someone paid for the creation of *any* good. Someone
paid for the creation of MS-DOS and of Windows and all the rest, too.
> > Before everyone says MS is trash... whatever. Get over yourself. Consider
> > the alternatives. Windows, Word, eXcel and explorer are superior products
> > that have served us exceedingly well. Bugs and all.
>
> So, Windows is a better OS than others in the marketplace, Word is better
> than all other word processing apps, Excel is better than Lotus 1-2-3,
Yes, yes, and yes. Better does not JUST == "technically superior", it's a
far more complex evaluation than that. I am satisfied that these three (and
IE) are the best available, evaluated using all the factors.
> Internet Explorer not a piece of fatware not conforming to the standards it
> is supposed to?
no, but that's not a metric of whether it is better than the competition or
not. It is.
> > In fact, you inadvertantly raise a connected but dissimilar point. MS did
> > *not* get any government assistance! And voila... look what happened.
>
> Yes, indeed, it leaves me breathless how people would want to use such a
> system without being forced. Which is why I think they ARE being forced
Do tell.
> > Industries that get the least "assistance" and the least regulation and the
> > least shielding from big nasty competitors tend to produce the best stuff
> > with the fastest growth and make the most money for all concerned.
>
> Well, I have to agree on "make the most money" even though I don't fully
> understand how they deserve it ...
Because they earned it?
Computers are the biggest labor saving devices ever invented. The more
interconnected they are, the more usable they are, the more they can
accomplish, the more labor they save. Saving labor means creating wealth out
of thin air (that's right, you can create wealth from nothing, if you can
repeatedly improve productivity, even though you cannot create goods from
nothing) and I am happy that MS gets a share of all the wealth it created
for every single person on the planet.
> > Arguably the internet revolution bubble burst at least in part because of
> > the Clinton DOJ going after MS, and the rumbles about taxing internet
> > transactions (well, maybe 20% of it is due to that, ...
>
> I would guess even less. It may have influenced WHEN the burst happened, but
> not much more than that.
That is different how, exactly?
++Lar
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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| (...) Pardon me? Operating Systems didn't cost a cent before Microsoft entered the game ... (...) So, Windows is a better OS than others in the marketplace, Word is better than all other word processing apps, Excel is better than Lotus 1-2-3, (...) (23 years ago, 24-Oct-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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