The Cloud of Microsoft

Microsoft has twice been found guilty of serious violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, by a federal District Court and by the United States Court of Appeals. While the Court of Appeals reversed the breakup order issued by the District Court, it upheld the trial court's Findings of Fact and affirmed that Microsoft is guilty of unlawfully maintaining its monopoly. On November 5, 1999 U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that Microsoft operates as a monopoly and has used its power to hurt both consumers and competitors. Jackson found that Microsoft used its monopoly power to stymie numerous technologies that had the potential to compete with Microsoft products:

"Microsoft's past success in hurting such companies and stifling innovation deters investment in technologies and businesses that exhibit the potential to threaten Microsoft." -Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson

Read On the Microsoft Giant -- An insightful paper written July 1995, before Microsoft ventured heavilly into the Internet, before the WebTV buyout, etc.

Simply put, Microsoft wants to rule the world. They don't even seem to be attempting to veil this in their marketing hype anymore. They are making their strategy very clear. They want to make the Internet part of the Microsoft suite, send the message that you cannot really use the net without Microsoft.

Why does this bother me you ask? It's just capitalism after all, right? The problem I have is the stagnation that will occur when there is no competition, the degradation in quality and lack of innovation. Microsoft has already demonstrated this. For example, witness the quality of their end-user Tech. Support? Do you think it's worth the price they charge? How long did it take Microsoft to create a 32-bit OS? In terms of features and ease of use, many people would say Windows hasn't caught up to MacOS. Microsoft has such outrageous bugs and poor support because they can; nobody can stop them anymore in the area of desktop applications and desktop operating systems. When they have the same market share in "Internet" then they will show the same complacency in adding innovations and the same sort of contempt for their customers. Would we have an IE 3 or IE 4, or IE 5 if there were no Netscape? Would they be worried about Java and cross-platform support without Sun? Without fair competition, you don't have capitalism.

"But for Microsoft's interference, the market would be much more dynamic as new technologies and fresh innovations challenged the company's present dominance." -Judge Robert Bork, former US Supreme Court nominee

"It seems clear that it will be very hard to increase browser market share on the merits of IE 4 alone. It will be more important to leverage the OS asset to make people use IE instead of Navigator." -Microsoft Manager Christian Wildfeuer (from an internal memo dated 02-24-97)

For more information on Microsoft's role in the browser wars, please visit my IE page at: /ie.html.

What follows are some other quotes I've collected from various sources:

"Take away their operating system monopoly and Microsoft is a bunch of clueless thugs without an original idea in their heads. The 'real story' is how they do so little with so much and the relentlessly negative impact they've had on personal computing. While Bill-ionaire Gates was building a monument to his overblown ego, Jim Clark - for 10% of what Gates spent on his house! - turned the Internet into the hottest thing in computing. Gates and company slept through that one and the notion that they are particularly smart or plugged in is patently absurd." -Review of The Microsoft Way written by an Amazon.com customer

"Appeasement, said Winston Churchill, consists of being nice to a crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last. At the moment, the biggest crocodile in the world is Microsoft, and everybody is busy sucking up to it." -John Naughton, The London Observer

"What we'll all end up doing if Netscape doesn't play better is we will have instantiated the Microsoft Network. We'll just call it the internet." -Geoffrey Moore, Marketing guru.

"[Microsoft] is the fox that takes you across the river and then eats you." -Pete Peterson, former WordPerfect executive.

"[Microsoft is] a potential threat to our nation's economic well-being." -Judge Stanley Sporkin, after blocking an antitrust settlement that was in favor of Microsoft.

"In a manner that would have left the robber barons of the late 19th century gaping in absolute awe, Microsoft is approaching something unprecedented: a monopoly that could well own the choke points of tomorrow's commerce and communications." -Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News

"The internet is central to everything we are doing." -Bill Gates.

"If one company dominates everything, it's dangerous. You kill innovation and you lose the capacity to create alternatives. Ultimately, that isn't good for the consumer or the country." -Samuel Miller, U.S. Justice Department

"I think anybody who is savvy about this market knows that Microsoft is getting away with stuff it probably shouldn't get away with." -Geoffrey Moore, Marketing guru.

"Microsoft has that certain confidence that comes from enjoying a monopoly and being very good at its business, which leads it to believe that it can do anything. Microsoft and its employees now think it is indeed the Master of the Universe." -Stewart Alsop, Fortune Magazine