4 ms·
> Do you really think "old" Microsoft thought that far into the future for this back then? Yes. - they killed Netscape in the 90s because they realised owning
by laumars 5y ago
> Do you really think "old" Microsoft thought that far into the future for this back then?
Yes.
- they killed Netscape in the 90s because they realised owning the web browser market meant locking people into Windows
- they ran the Xbox division for years at a loss knowing it would eventually pay out
- they bailed out Apple financially knowing that a long term competitor to Windows meant a reduced likelihood of monopoly violations
- they had a long term strategy attacking Linux (even going so far as to call it “communism”) before eventually caving and public ally supporting FOSS
- the whole long term “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” strategy is synonymous with old Microsoft. Eg Lotus Office comparability to sell MS Office licenses, then dropping support when MS Office became dominant.
- Windows 2000 and Me were never intended as long term strategies but instead as a gateway into merging the NT and 9x line of operating systems.
I could go on with examples from their dealings with IBM, Apple, Dr DOS, MSN and so on and so forth but I have two screaming kids I need to deal with. However you should get the idea
- the-dude 5y agoCommunism isn't that bad. I remember Cancer.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoHonestly? In some way, maybe they've actually had a point. Beyond all the good things that FOSS gave us, what it also did was to commoditize software, forcing software companies to make money in extremely abusive ways - through advertising, surveillance, and forcing everything into being a service.
- laumars 5y agoYou cannot blame that in Open source though, nor even Linux specifically. It was companies like Google, Yahoo! and Geocities that really set the expectation for free software with the average user and they were companies built around advertising and walled gardens. Outside of tech circles, almost nobody ran open source. But most people had or knew someone who had free email, et al. Commercial companies did this to themselves as they raced to the bottom with aggressive pricing and a need to dominate at a global scale.
- the-dude 5y agoFor all the valid reasons why software is offered as a service ( SaaS ), there is one who stands out : it is a workaround the GPL.