Eight Years Later, Is Microsoft Still a Monopoly?
,----[ Quote ]
| But whether because of the antitrust suits or because of other market
| factors, Microsoft doesn't seem to be using its power to muscle competitors
| off the desktop. The very fact that Dell is selling Linux machines at all is
| one example. And when I recently bought a Dell desktop for home use, it came
| preloaded with products from two of Microsoft's most formidable
| competitors--Google's desktop search service and Mozilla's Firefox.
| Windows in Decline?
|
| Trends suggest that the power of Windows may decline over the next few years.
| Most reviewers of Apple's new Leopard operating system have noted that it's
| superior to Windows Vista. And as virtualization products such as Parallels
| make running Windows software on a Mac seamless, individuals, at least,
| probably won't feel as tightly bound to the Windows platform.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139458-c,microsoftantitrustcase/article.html
Clueless article. Of course it's still abusing and bullying the market. The
government (and DoJ especially) chooses to be seen as blind.
Google Only Ahead Of Microsoft In Search: Ballmer
,----[ Quote ]
| Live Spaces: nice tie in with the MSN chat platform, but still a poor cousin
| to Blogger as a blogging platform.
|
| Video: did someone say YouTube?
|
| The list could go on and on and on and on…. but I’ll stop there. Certainly
| Google hasn’t dominated every market it has taken on, but to say that Google
| runs second to Microsoft online in everything but search says a lot more
| about Steve Ballmer than it being a true reflection on today’s online
| marketplace.
`----
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/08/google-only-ahead-of-microsoft-in-search-ballmer/
Recent:
Google's Android just a press release, says Ballmer
,----[ Quoteb ]
| Google's plans to enter the mobile industry with a cell phone platform might
| have impressed many in the industry but not Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
| and one of Google's biggest competitors.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/110807-googles-android-just-a-press.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news
Lat month:
Google reads your email, shocker - Steve Ballmer claims
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/08/google-reads-email-shokka
Related:
Microsoft Faces EU Probe on Word, Excel Dominance, People Say
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, is facing deeper
| scrutiny from European regulators on whether it is abusing its dominance in
| word processing and spreadsheets, three people with direct knowledge of the
| case said.
`----
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aR9bHOp5bm3A&refer=europe
The value of regulation in a monopoly market
,----[ Quote
| Why did the EC order Microsoft to disclose its protocols to rivals?
|
| Because it had misused its monopoly position to illegally maintain a
| dominant position in the market.
|
| In order to remedy that situation, the EC has an obligation to ensure
| that the interoperability information is available to everyone at a
| fair price.
|
| In order to do this, in my view, it cannot leave the market to decide
| the value of Microsoft?s protocols (although a third party group could
| be argued for).
`----
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2007/03/the_value_of_re.html
Six questions to national standardisation bodies
,----[ Quote ]
| Application independence?
|
| Supporting pre-existing Open Standards?
|
| Backward compatibility for all vendors?
|
| Proprietary extensions?
|
| Dual standards?
|
| Legally safe?
`----
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
OOXML: The Formula for Failure
,----[ Quote ]
| As I've shown, in the rush to write a 6,000 page standard in less than a
| year, Ecma dropped the ball. OOXML's spreadsheet formula is worse than
| missing. It has incorrect formulas that, if implemented according to the
| standard may cause loss of life, property and capital. This standard is
| seriously messed up. And shame on all those who praised and continue to
| praise the OOXML formula specification without actually reading it.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/formula-for-failure.html
Mathematically Incorrect
,----[ Quote ]
| So when it comes to comparing MSOOXML and ODF v1.0 on the basis of the
| inclusion of "Formula Definitions", it becomes clear that the anti-ODF folk
| have not much to shout about. In fact MSOOXML's "Formula Definition" is
| deficient and inaccurate.
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/07/mathematically-.html
Guest Commentary: The converter hoax
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft maintains that while it would have been easy to support the Open
| Document Format (ODF) natively, it had to move to MS-OOXML because this was
| the only way for them to offer the full features of its office suite. But if
| Microsoft itself is not able to represent its internal data structures in the
| Open Document Format (ODF) in its Microsoft Office suite, how could an
| external conversion program from MS-OOXML accomplish this task? The answer to
| both questions is that it is not possible because two things cannot be the
| same and different at the same time.
`----
http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/92735
,----[ Quote ]
| "[Microsoft:] For example, we should take the lead in establishing a common
| approach to UI and to interoperability (of which OLE is only a part). Our
| efforts to date are focussed too much on our own apps, and only incidentally
| on the rest of the industry. We want to own these standards, so we should
| not participate in standards groups. Rather, we should call 'to me' to the
| industry and set a standard that works now and is for everyone's
| benefit. We are large enough that this can work."
`----
http://www.os2site.com/sw/info/comes/px09509.zip
|
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