Re: Programming project required

From: Michael Lorrey (mike@datamann.com)
Date: Mon Jan 22 2001 - 11:21:49 MST


Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> >On Sun, 21 Jan 2001, Max More wrote:
> >>
> >> I don't share your intense hatred of all things Microsoft. Far from it.
> >
> >
> >Most people would agree with you. I personally don't have any sort of
> >knee-jerk animosity towards Microsoft. However as a software developer, I
> >am exposed to parts of the Microsoft world that are very objectionable on
> >many different levels. Unless you write software though, you aren't likely
> >to see or understand these strong objections.
>
> This is true. Microsoft plays dirty tricks to sabotage the
> competition. Most people will not have debugged Microsoft's stuff
> enough to figure out what is going on inside. Not to start an
> anti-Microsoft discussion, but here are some examples:
>
> - font smoother in Windows serves smooth fonts to Internet Explorer
> and jagged fonts to Netscape

This is a matter of Netscape not taking advantage of this in their own
programming, so you are blaming the wrong person here.

> - server serves Internet Explorer first but delays serving Netscape
> - server refuses to give Netscape common gif or jpeg formats, but
> serves an error message that Netscape can't display these images but
> Internet Explorer can

What is funny is that this has bitten them in the butt. A while back
they released a bad version of Media Viewer that would screw up Explorer
and other applications (netscape, ventura, draw, etc), such that you had
to reinstall IE 5 to fix this. When I went to the microsoft website to
download IE5, their download server was set to not recognise Netscape
browsers (much like Extropy.com's "Decode, debug, etc" page is set up
but hasn't fixed), so I couldn't download their browser. I sent a nice
message three times telling them of the bug. Finally I got a response
about the bug with Media Player saying I needed to download IE 5 and
reinstall it. It took three more responses for them to figure out that I
only told them about that bug to make sure they were aware of it, that
my problem was in downloading IE5. When I told them I couldn't access
the site with netscape, they said "Why don't you use IE?"
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH.

> - takes control of Novell printer and then when finished, gives it to
> other Windows systems first, delaying the Novell printer queue until
> all windows systems are done printing

One has to have priorities.

> - writes invalid HTML code that fails to work in other browsers, then
> extends Internet Explorer to read the invalid code so it works

Netscape also produces non-standard code as well, they just tell
everybody about it, so MS programs IE to recognise some of it. Netscape
refuses to recognise MS non-standard code. Netscape is not innocent
here.

> - bought Apple technology to create Windows, and then claimed that
> Windows 3.0 was not the same Windows they built with Apple source code

no no no. They both stole it from Xerox, as anyone who knows anything
can tell you. Thats *Xerox* technology you are talking about. Apple is
as 'innovative' and more monopolizing than MS, just less successful at
it.

> - promised IBM Windows technology for OS/2 including all future
> versions of Windows, but then claimed Windows 95 was not the same as
> Windows.

IBM wanted exclusive marketing, as they had learned their lesson from
MS-DOS. It wasn't in MS' interest to give them that control (nor ours).

> - used open-source Kerberos source code while promising the open
> source foundation they will publish their source code, then published
> source code but only to people who sign an agreement not to compete
> with Microsoft

While the GNU license demands you give your improvements away for free.
Either way, you make no money.

> - set cheap prices for servers as long as they did not support
> Netscape or link to Netscape's site, those that did had to pay much
> higher prices *retroactively* as a punishment for supporting the
> competition

We run a couple IIS servers and have sold plenty, and have never seen
this sort of thing.

> - put delays in Excel for Macintosh so it would run slower than Excel
> for Windows

When a system doesn't have the same math processing, you can either
create a new engine, or write an interpreter. Which is cheaper?

> - gives developers degraded system calls while their internal
> software developers use better system calls so competitor software
> can never work as fast or as well as Microsoft products

No debate here, or for the rest.

> - Java deliberately breaks security rules so that they can add more features
> - Java deliberately checked platform so that it would act differently
> for Windows than other systems
> - signed agreement not to change the Java syntax one bit, but then
> used tricks to act differently with the same syntax such that the
> same command would act different for different systems or situations
>
> Most people who dislike Microsoft do so because they support open and
> fair competition. The way to win in the market should be to build a
> better product, not sabotage a competitor's product. Sometimes it
> seems that Microsoft puts more work into sabotaging other products
> rather than making their product better.
> --
> Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>



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