5 ms·

Thee was a time when Microsoft could do this and get away with it. It's sad that they seem to be the last ones to know that those days are behind them.

rednukleus 14y ago
> "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." It is far too early to say with certainty that Microsoft's ship has sailed. IBM turned themselves around. Apple turned themselves around. Microsoft is still in a far, far better position than either of those companies were at one point. EDIT: Parent edited their comment to tone it down. Leaving my comment as it is.
- meaty 14y ago
  I'd argue they are in a far better position than Google, Facebook and Apple regarding privacy and honesty (shokcing thought that). I think this will be the next battleground so they may have a chance of winning.
  - mikelat 14y ago
    Why? Skype in china? Xbox live ads? Scroogled (and other anti-google campaigns)? WGA? They've done plenty of questionable things which are shady and violate privacy.
    - meaty 14y ago
      All the other guys are doing it worse - that's the thing. I'm not saying they are suddenly perfect, but they are less worse than the others.
      - mikelat 14y ago
        The worst I can think of is facebooks changing of their TOS, and the companies are "scary" with the kind of data they're potentially compiling but they haven't actually done anything yet (and switching to microsoft products would simply make them the scary company). Some things that apple does like patent abuse is something that Microsoft has done as well, so its difficult to single out apple for something like that. Or facebook's lock in is similar to the Windows API lock in. You want to give me examples of things that make all 3 of those companies worse than microsoft?
HelloMcFly 14y ago
Did you read the article? This doesn't seem like the old "Microsoft bullying others into following" story, this seems like legitimate reasoning for the moment.
- taf2 14y ago
  It's the same old same old... Missing spec - to replace a working spec. Preserving their Skype IP - if WebRTC is widely adopted Skype is done.
- beagle3 14y ago
  They are not in a position to bully anyone, just like they were when IE3 came out. So they made IE4 which mopped the floor with NS4. And it still took a lot of time until the momentum changed and IE became popular. And then they bullied everyone with IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE 6 - like they did (and still do) with Office (OpenXML), SMB, Kerberos and a variety of other products. Of course their statement is going to be about merit - they've never said "oh, we're bullying here" even when they were. And their statement MIGHT even have some merit - but just like in the OASIS OpenOffice document spec, instead of working with the industry, they arrive late with their own underspecified and alternative specification. It's same old Microsoft.

rednukleus 14y ago

> "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." It is far too early to say with certainty that Microsoft's ship has sailed. IBM turned themselves around. Apple turned themselves around. Microsoft is still in a far, far better position than either of those companies were at one point. EDIT: Parent edited their comment to tone it down. Leaving my comment as it is.

meaty 14y ago
I'd argue they are in a far better position than Google, Facebook and Apple regarding privacy and honesty (shokcing thought that). I think this will be the next battleground so they may have a chance of winning.
- mikelat 14y ago
  Why? Skype in china? Xbox live ads? Scroogled (and other anti-google campaigns)? WGA? They've done plenty of questionable things which are shady and violate privacy.
  - meaty 14y ago
    All the other guys are doing it worse - that's the thing. I'm not saying they are suddenly perfect, but they are less worse than the others.
    - mikelat 14y ago
      The worst I can think of is facebooks changing of their TOS, and the companies are "scary" with the kind of data they're potentially compiling but they haven't actually done anything yet (and switching to microsoft products would simply make them the scary company). Some things that apple does like patent abuse is something that Microsoft has done as well, so its difficult to single out apple for something like that. Or facebook's lock in is similar to the Windows API lock in. You want to give me examples of things that make all 3 of those companies worse than microsoft?

HelloMcFly 14y ago

Did you read the article? This doesn't seem like the old "Microsoft bullying others into following" story, this seems like legitimate reasoning for the moment.

taf2 14y ago
It's the same old same old... Missing spec - to replace a working spec. Preserving their Skype IP - if WebRTC is widely adopted Skype is done.
beagle3 14y ago
They are not in a position to bully anyone, just like they were when IE3 came out. So they made IE4 which mopped the floor with NS4. And it still took a lot of time until the momentum changed and IE became popular. And then they bullied everyone with IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE 6 - like they did (and still do) with Office (OpenXML), SMB, Kerberos and a variety of other products. Of course their statement is going to be about merit - they've never said "oh, we're bullying here" even when they were. And their statement MIGHT even have some merit - but just like in the OASIS OpenOffice document spec, instead of working with the industry, they arrive late with their own underspecified and alternative specification. It's same old Microsoft.