5 ms·

What about Microsoft?

abirch 2y ago
The funny thing is this is going to be benefit Microsoft significantly. Much of what Google did Chrome, Android, etc. was to prevent Microsoft from destroying it like Netscape, Novell, Lotus, Wordperfect, ... It's probably no coincidence that Google's first external CEO Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Novell.
- jonhohle 2y ago
  By the time Chrome was released, Google was already a behemoth. I can’t think of another .com that was anywhere near their size. Microsoft was only 2x bigger by market cap. They were hardly a small company that Microsoft could push around and had the advantage of not being dependent on anything MS was doing.
  - abirch 2y ago
    Google came out with Chrome in 2008. Prior to that they were dependent on the Mozilla Foundation. Microsoft came out with Bing in 2009. Some say that Bing is "Bing is not google" Much like Windows NT was rumored to be Novell Terminator.
  - cma 2y ago
    Google toolbar came first. Slipped in a Google search box on everyone's browser in exchange for blocking Google's competitors' popup ads (Google didn't use popup ads). Now Google does invasive popovers within the page, etc., and this time with them in charge of the browser they are ahout to implement a plan to block extension makers from stopping it well.
- card_zero 2y ago
  The eternal struggle to control the levers of enshittification.
- danaris 2y ago
  What this means is that we also need antitrust action against Microsoft (particularly since the first one was thwarted by the election of a very pro-big-business administration, that stopped the implementation of fairly sweeping remedies). It's not exactly a hot take nowadays that all the Big Tech companies are probably overdue for serious antitrust action.
monooso 2y ago
I don't have a strong opinion either way, but if that's your argument against breaking up Google, it's a weak one.
airstrike 2y ago
"What about Y" has no bearing on X. Go ahead and spawn that separate thread.
sensanaty 2y ago
In these types of discussions, people love bringing out the "But what about $OTHER_OBVIOUS_MONOPOLY?". The solution is simple (the word simple here is doing a lot of work, I know); Meta, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple and any other similarly sized behemoth should be nuked, and not just in the tech world. Microsoft should've been properly nuked 30 years ago with the original anti-trust, yet alone now, same goes for the others.
- sunaookami 2y ago
  Not to mention that Microsoft wasn't broken up because Bush intervened: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/sep/07/microsoft.business https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/sep/07/microsoft...
  - tantalor 2y ago
    Obviously nothing more than a coincidence, but very interesting this news came out days before 9/11. I wonder if this would have gotten more attention at the time.
- extraduder_ire 2y ago
  Amazon is a funny example to imagine being broken up, since they famously try to isolate their business units from each other and keep them self-sustaining income wise. It might kill or dramatically change some business units like twitch, or IMDB though.
  - danaris 2y ago
    That's the point. They use the money from their cash-cow businesses to artificially prop up their other lines of business, insulating them from having to actually compete on an even footing. That's textbook abuse of monopoly (or market-dominant) position.
bearjaws 2y ago
Why is this always posted as some sort of "gotcha!" Break them up to? Break everyone up. Ask me any company over 5k employees. It should probably be broken up.

The funny thing is this is going to be benefit Microsoft significantly. Much of what Google did Chrome, Android, etc. was to prevent Microsoft from destroying it like Netscape, Novell, Lotus, Wordperfect, ... It's probably no coincidence that Google's first external CEO Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Novell.

jonhohle 2y ago
By the time Chrome was released, Google was already a behemoth. I can’t think of another .com that was anywhere near their size. Microsoft was only 2x bigger by market cap. They were hardly a small company that Microsoft could push around and had the advantage of not being dependent on anything MS was doing.
- abirch 2y ago
  Google came out with Chrome in 2008. Prior to that they were dependent on the Mozilla Foundation. Microsoft came out with Bing in 2009. Some say that Bing is "Bing is not google" Much like Windows NT was rumored to be Novell Terminator.
- cma 2y ago
  Google toolbar came first. Slipped in a Google search box on everyone's browser in exchange for blocking Google's competitors' popup ads (Google didn't use popup ads). Now Google does invasive popovers within the page, etc., and this time with them in charge of the browser they are ahout to implement a plan to block extension makers from stopping it well.
card_zero 2y ago
The eternal struggle to control the levers of enshittification.
danaris 2y ago
What this means is that we also need antitrust action against Microsoft (particularly since the first one was thwarted by the election of a very pro-big-business administration, that stopped the implementation of fairly sweeping remedies). It's not exactly a hot take nowadays that all the Big Tech companies are probably overdue for serious antitrust action.

monooso 2y ago

I don't have a strong opinion either way, but if that's your argument against breaking up Google, it's a weak one.

airstrike 2y ago

"What about Y" has no bearing on X. Go ahead and spawn that separate thread.

sensanaty 2y ago

In these types of discussions, people love bringing out the "But what about $OTHER_OBVIOUS_MONOPOLY?". The solution is simple (the word simple here is doing a lot of work, I know); Meta, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple and any other similarly sized behemoth should be nuked, and not just in the tech world. Microsoft should've been properly nuked 30 years ago with the original anti-trust, yet alone now, same goes for the others.

sunaookami 2y ago
Not to mention that Microsoft wasn't broken up because Bush intervened: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/sep/07/microsoft.business https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/sep/07/microsoft...
- tantalor 2y ago
  Obviously nothing more than a coincidence, but very interesting this news came out days before 9/11. I wonder if this would have gotten more attention at the time.
extraduder_ire 2y ago
Amazon is a funny example to imagine being broken up, since they famously try to isolate their business units from each other and keep them self-sustaining income wise. It might kill or dramatically change some business units like twitch, or IMDB though.
- danaris 2y ago
  That's the point. They use the money from their cash-cow businesses to artificially prop up their other lines of business, insulating them from having to actually compete on an even footing. That's textbook abuse of monopoly (or market-dominant) position.

bearjaws 2y ago

Why is this always posted as some sort of "gotcha!" Break them up to? Break everyone up. Ask me any company over 5k employees. It should probably be broken up.