5 ms·

I mean, what Microsoft did pales in comparison to Apple's standard business model. How many third party apps have been driven out of business by Apple's preferr

I mean, what Microsoft did pales in comparison to Apple's standard business model. How many third party apps have been driven out of business by Apple's preferred first party copy? We still cannot run anything but Safari (or an older, less-featured, reskinned Safari) on iOS. Anti-trust is a joke and holding Microsoft accountable for 1/10th of today's standard operating procedure was ridiculous.

kibwen 6y ago
Anti-trust is only a joke in the sense that it doesn't get wielded enough. No more of these enormous companies forming unaccountable pseudo-governments of their own. Break them up and let the fragments enliven the market with their revitalized sense of competition. Then, when a victor emerges fat and complacent, break them up again and begin the cycle anew.
toast0 6y ago
Apple's market share also pales in comparison with Microsoft's. I'm pretty sure Apple never made anyone selling an iPhone pay them for an iOS license on all the phones they sell. That's not to say Apple's conduct isn't egregious, but the context isn't the same either.
- franga2000 6y ago
  > I'm pretty sure Apple never made anyone selling an iPhone pay them for an iOS license on all the phones they sell. That's a wildly different situation. Of course Microsoft charges hardware vendors for Windows licenses - we have to pay for them too! Windows is Microsoft's main product - should they be giving away licenses to vendors?!? (I'm ignoring the underlying issue of sell vs produce here, because it's such a clear fallacy it's not even worth explaining)
  - toast0 6y ago
    Microsoft was charging vendors for Windows licenses per computer; even computers that were sold without Windows.
    - franga2000 6y ago
      Huh, I've never heard of that...
      - toast0 6y ago
        It was a sizable part of the big Microsoft anti-trust case. And also an earlier case except for MS-DOS instead of Windows.

kibwen 6y ago

Anti-trust is only a joke in the sense that it doesn't get wielded enough. No more of these enormous companies forming unaccountable pseudo-governments of their own. Break them up and let the fragments enliven the market with their revitalized sense of competition. Then, when a victor emerges fat and complacent, break them up again and begin the cycle anew.

toast0 6y ago

Apple's market share also pales in comparison with Microsoft's. I'm pretty sure Apple never made anyone selling an iPhone pay them for an iOS license on all the phones they sell. That's not to say Apple's conduct isn't egregious, but the context isn't the same either.

franga2000 6y ago
> I'm pretty sure Apple never made anyone selling an iPhone pay them for an iOS license on all the phones they sell. That's a wildly different situation. Of course Microsoft charges hardware vendors for Windows licenses - we have to pay for them too! Windows is Microsoft's main product - should they be giving away licenses to vendors?!? (I'm ignoring the underlying issue of sell vs produce here, because it's such a clear fallacy it's not even worth explaining)
- toast0 6y ago
  Microsoft was charging vendors for Windows licenses per computer; even computers that were sold without Windows.
  - franga2000 6y ago
    Huh, I've never heard of that...
    - toast0 6y ago
      It was a sizable part of the big Microsoft anti-trust case. And also an earlier case except for MS-DOS instead of Windows.