PG> The issue with Microsoft is not their lower prices.  Although some
 PG> competitors would do well to realize that.  The issue with Microsoft
 PG> is that they use extremely dishonest business 
 CD> practices coupled with a
 PG> very slick legal department and an almost unlimited cash flow to dump
 PG> very low quality software onto the public.
 CD>  I can see that you're an unbiased observer!!  The flaw with the above
 CD>  logic is that Microsoft still operates in an open market.  Nobody
 CD>  is forced to buy Microsoft software.  And I realize this sounds
 CD>  amazing, but there are millions of consumers who feel that they
 CD>  get the most bang for their buck from MS sw.
As a marginally less biased observer, I just need to say: when I bought my 
new computer, I was forced to "purchase" NT 4.0.  I have since upgraded my 
OS, but the fact remains that MS received a "purchase" (money and a statistic 
- meaningless by itself, but can be added up quickly) out of someone who did 
not wish to purchase their software.
However, while I find a lot of MS software to be junk, not all of it is.  I 
was fairly impressed by MSVC v4, despite some annoying small problems in its 
C parser.  (Desperately grasping at straws to remain on topic...)
MS leveraged DOS to get Windows preloaded.  MS leveraged Windows to get other 
stuff preloaded.  MS leveraged all of this (plus lotsa hype) to get Win95 
preloaded.  MS leveraged Win95 to get IE preloaded.  At least according to 
the DOJ, this is dishonest and illegal.  The courts already ruled on it once, 
and MS is, according to the DOJ, ignoring the ruling.  MS, of course, denies 
this.  The courts will determine whether the DOJ or MS are telling the truth 
(legally speaking anyway).  The market is NOT that open.
 PG> I have seen
 PG> M$ try to market their software to hospitals where they knew it would
 PG> literally kill people, and attempt to cover their 
 PG> tracks by hiring the
 PG> competent people away from them.  In fact the 
 PG> latter is a well known M$
 PG> tactic.
 CD>  You've gone off the deep end...
Divers are not always incorrect.  ;-)  He is right in one sense - MS does 
purchase talent (signing bonuses of $50,000 to $5,000,000 US are not unheard 
of, plus salaries of $100,000+ - if your talent is important enough, you can 
see 4 or 5 times salary increases over your current job, sometimes more!).  I 
don't know about the hospitals, although personally I'd be rather leary of 
trusting my money or health to PC-based solutions, whether WinNT or OS/2.  
The hardware just simply wasn't designed for that type of robustness, and 
when hardware dies, there ain't anything the software can do about it...
[Just last week one person I knew was hired away from my employer due to a 
price he "couldn't resist"... and he is an os/2 bigot like myself! ]
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