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Date:      Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:45:06 +0000 (GMT)
From:      Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
To:        David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>
Cc:        Erick White <erickw@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   RE: Judge: "Gates Was Main Culprit"
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9911161622330.48871-100000@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
In-Reply-To: <000001bf2ff8$63026740$021d85d1@youwant.to>

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On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, David Schwartz wrote:
>
First you said this....

>	A company can have all the ideas in the world, but if they can't turn it
>into a product that consumers actually want to buy, it won't amount to a
>hill of beans. Microsoft excels at turning ideas into marketable products.
>And that's what the market wants -- products, not ideas.
>
>	Ideas were once a dime a dozen, now they're $1 a bale in 10,000 idea bales.
>The market doesn't buy ideas.

Then you said this....

>	If you had an idea that was really better than Microsoft's, that should
>give you enough of an advantage to take a sizeable market share. If the
>better idea isn't winning, look long and hard at whether it's really better.
>
Which is it?  Better ideas or better products ?


>	Sure, and I don't have to buy it. Any manufacturer can charge any price
>they want for a product. What they can't do is make people buy it if it
>isn't worth the price.
>
>	Yes, but a company with superior technology wouldn't need to brainwash
>anyone. If it really had a better product, it would eventually take over the
>marketplace. Really.

Not true.  What kind of VCR do you have, if you have one?  Beta?  Why not?
Beta had a way better picture, and a smaller medium.  Because VHS won the
marketing battle, not because it was a better product.  Has the VCR market
_forced_ us to buy VHS VCR's?  No.  But it has made it pretty darm
inconvenient NOT to.  Those who went with Beta now have very high
picture quality
paperweights.

Why do customers upgrade Windows?  Because they like to spend more money?
No.  Sure there may be some new hardware drivers or new features they
like, but most do not need these.  If they are upgrading the OS, they
usually had hardware that worked before.  But it's also because
M$ adds requires developers who want the official M$ seal to
use the newest API calls in their programs.  Now, when customers genuinely
_need_ a program upgrade, they also need an OS upgrade.  And sometimes a
hardware upgrade as well to handle a more bloated OS.

The whole upgrade scam was carefully engineered to put more money in their
pockets by staying ahead of the competition just enough to make it
unfeasible to switch.  It's the donkey and the carrot.  Sure, M$ had some
innovations.  But just enough to stay ahead.  They kept the really good
stuff for when they needed it, which will always be the next OS release,
JUST around the corner.  And I won't even comment on how many of those
ideas were taken from other companies....

Just a comment on the CD vs vinyl debate:  it was a case of the Emperor's
new clothes... anyone who remembers the original CD players know they
sounded HORRIBLE... but no one would say that except audiophiles, because
no one wanted to argue that vinyl sounded better than new-fangled digital
technology.

Same with windows.  No one wants to argue that such a cute, easy to use OS
really is unstable and is a carefully engineered money making scheme.





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