Comments on: Andreessen: MSFT did us a favour

By: mathewi

mathewi — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:38:02 +0000

My point is that having a single dominant technology standard helped
the PC market develop early on — Microsoft's monopolistic behaviour
later on is a separate issue.

By: TFBW

TFBW — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:37:38 +0000

“The fact is that having Microsoft dominate the market for personal computer operating systems helped more than it hurt the industry long-term.”

What possible grounds do you have for asserting this as fact? Microsoft is a predatory monopolist, noted for killing its competitors, and also noted for not being very innovative (their persistent self-application of the term during the US antitrust era notwithstanding). This kind of environment does not foster progress or innovation. You must have a very particular notion of how this state of affairs is helpful.

By: Thusenth

Thusenth — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:17:39 +0000

It may have been luck, but I believe I read somewhere that his mother had a role to play with him landing IBM. Bill came from an influential family, and his mother was a well connected socialite I believe.

Furthermore, the most promising company that Bill took out had to have been HyperGlobalMegaNet, started by a chap named Homer Jay… can't remember that last name, but it was caught on camera.

By: mathewi

mathewi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:25:20 +0000

Michael, if you want to talk about the U.S. and anti-monopoly law, then we could be here for a long time. The fact is that having Microsoft dominate the market for personal computer operating systems helped more than it hurt the industry long-term. I'm not sure what that has to do with me “pitching spitballs” or having to get on a jet to go somewhere, frankly.

By: mathewi

mathewi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:22:23 +0000

Well, if it's not equivalent then why make the comparison? As for the thinking about Microsoft, I'm talking about in the very early days of personal computing — when DOS became the standard and that made it easier for companies to roll out things that built on top of that. I'm not talking about controlling a market or stamping out competition.