[freetech] Fw: Microsoft a threat: rival
- From: "Samuel Proulx" <samuelp@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <freetech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 15:53:12 -0400
What are the opinions of everyone with regards to this? Microsoft has
brought home computers a long way for everyone, and they have the most
friendly operating system on the market, despite all the grumbling we all
like to do about it. Linux is free, but you get what you pay for, as Linux
is harder to use and harder to get support with. However, I'm having my
doubts with Windows XP and its copy protection software, what if you have
more than one computer? Do you have to own two copies of windows? However,
can you think of another OS on the market that has all the features of
windows (including being user friendly! That counts most UNIX based systems
out)?
--
Samuel Proulx - samuelp@xxxxxxxxxx
http://members.rogers.com/samuelstudent
"Even the fool knows you can't reach out and touch the stars, but that
t
doesn't stop the wise man from trying." - Judge Harry Stone, "Night
Court"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Roszmann" <don@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Aman Singer" <aasinger@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 4:29 AM
Subject: Microsoft a threat: rival
PRINT EDITION
Microsoft a threat: rival
space
Sun executive says Passport ID technology could shut out new Internet
businesses
space
space
By D. IAN HOPPER
Associated Press, with files from Reuters.
Email this article
Print this article Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - Page B8
WASHINGTON -- A Microsoft
Corp.
rival testified yesterday that the firm's dominance in desktop computer
operating systems allows it to shut down emerging Internet services and take
customers away from other companies involved in electronic commerce.
Jonathan Schwartz, a Sun Microsystems Inc.
senior vice-president, said a court should impose the antitrust penalties
requested by nine states to ensure Microsoft does not use its Windows
operating system to shut out new services.
Sun, Microsoft and several other companies are developing Web services that
would allow customers to access programs, messages, targeted sales pitches
and other data from any Internet-connected device, such as a cellphone, an
interactive television box or a personal computer.
Mr. Schwartz said Microsoft's identity authentication technology, known as
Passport, places Microsoft as a middleman between e-commerce sites and their
customers. Microsoft could start charging for the technology or hold
customers' personal information hostage, he said.
"I believe that Passport is in fact an intermediary and a threat," Mr.
Schwartz said.
Users of Microsoft's newest Windows XP operating system are constantly
reminded to create a Passport account. One is required for Microsoft's
Internet service, portions of its Web sites and its instant messaging
product.
Mr. Schwartz is Sun's top representative on the Liberty Alliance, a group
started by Sun to create open technology standards for identity
authentication on the Internet. The group includes companies like Bank of
America, General Motors and American Airlines.
Microsoft lawyer Steven Holley accused Mr. Schwartz of deriding Passport and
misstating Microsoft's intentions in order to scare other companies into
joining Liberty.
Mr. Holley said Liberty's name is "an insult, because it means liberty from
Microsoft hegemony."
Mr. Schwartz replied, "With all due respect, I think that's a little
paranoid."
The states want U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to force
Microsoft to create a stripped-down version of its flagship Windows software
that could incorporate competitors' features. The states also want Microsoft
to divulge the blueprints for its Internet Explorer browser.
The federal government and nine other states settled their antitrust case
against Microsoft last year for lesser penalties.
The original judge in the case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft
broken into two companies after concluding that it illegally stifled
competitors. An appeals court reversed the breakup order and appointed Judge
Kollar-Kotelly to determine a new punishment.
Microsoft asked Judge Kollar-Kotelly to throw out much of Mr. Schwartz's
testimony about Web services, as those products -- which are in their
infancy now -- were not mentioned explicitly in the first phase of the case.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly postponed a decision. She said she was skeptical of
Microsoft's argument that Mr. Schwartz's testimony didn't rise to an
allegation of new antitrust violations but at the same time consisted of
allegations that could not be addressed in the penalty hearing.
"I will note that Microsoft sounds a little schizophrenic," she said.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly has not thrown out any testimony about new devices or
technology, to the frustration of Microsoft lawyers. Microsoft wants to
confine the case to the consumer desktop computer market.
Microsoft's Mr. Holley presented a Sun document sent to Justice Department
antitrust chief Charles James that recommended many penalties that were
later mirrored in the states' proposed remedies. The suggestions, which
included the modular Windows provision and enforcement requirements, were
rejected by Mr. James.
"So Mr. James apparently didn't think it was a very good idea," Mr. Holley
said.
"Or Microsoft didn't, yes," Mr. Schwartz said.
Sun has long accused Microsoft of trying to sabotage Sun's Java programming
language.
Microsoft, in turn, accuses Sun of promoting the government antitrust suit
to gain a commercial advantage. Microsoft maintains Java is a product
threatened by its own shortcomings rather than any anti-competitive
behaviour by Microsoft.
The states' remedy would be a boon to Sun in particular because it would
require Microsoft to include Java in the Windows operating system. Microsoft
eliminated Java from Windows for the first time last year when it rolled out
the new Windows XP operating system.
Mr. Schwartz said the so-called "must-carry" Java provision would ensure
that computer users and developers have an alternative to Microsoft's .NET
service.
Princeton University professor Andrew Appel began testifying for the states
late yesterday. Mr. Appel said that despite Microsoft's protests, Microsoft
has the ability to create a modular version of Windows and that the federal
settlement's disclosure requirement is not strong enough to help software
developers.
States that rejected the government's settlement with Microsoft and are
continuing to pursue the antitrust case are Iowa, Utah, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, California, Kansas, Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia, along
with the District of Columbia.
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