Original Sender : Ari <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------- http://www.osopinion.com/Opinions/NITE/NITE32.html Auction or Open Source Windows?! According to a News.com article A State attorney general preparing for antitrust settlement talks with Microsoft will ask the software giant to give up control of the Windows operating system, possibly through an auction. The report continued by saying: Under the proposal--presented as the best way to redress what Microsoft's critics see as abuses of its monopoly power--intellectual property rights to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000 would be sold to two or three companies. Microsoft would retain the right to market and develop its own versions of the software, and Microsoft shareholders would get "reasonable compensation." After reading that news column I've got to ask, do you think people will actually buy a Microsoft version of Windows after the public now knows what Microsoft did to gain marketshare? I think not. If you ask me, people will likely avoid it in droves! The second thing we've got to ask ourselves is whether or not Microsoft will continue to gain marketshare under this plan. Considering the fact that they can no longer bully the clone vendors into a bundling agreement. I have a feeling that these computer cloners will ditch Microsoft out of sheer spite! Another twist to this interesting saga that unfolded last Tuesday in the negotiating session was the possibility of demanding that Microsoft make Windows available publicly on an "open source" basis to third-party developers or at least disclose certain parts of the source code that constitutes the operating system if a forced auction was unacceptable. If an open source Microsoft were declared, would programmers continue to develop for it? Part of the incentive that fueled Microsoft's growth was the fact that Microsoft along with Intel allowed some sort of direction in a computing society that fought for differing standards. Without Microsoft in place to offer a directional path as it did, there would be no other standard to control this computer chaos. If an open source Microsoft is declared, I believe that that Linux users will enjoy a major jump in application development and support. Linux has already embraced the open source community. This community holds the software giant in such high disregard, I can't imagine that they can continue to excel in this highly competitive society as they used to. I have a feeling that we're going to see a major turn of events in the months to come. What do you all think? Respond in the "Talkback" forum below. http://www.vestris.com/db-cgi/cup/agnes?OsopinionsAgnes+OsopinionsAgnesHTMLArticle+27 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Compu-Mania MailingList is provided by PT Centrin Utama Maintained by : [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Post a msg : Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe : Mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BODY : unsubscribe Compu-Mania For more information, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "HELP" in the BODY of your mail (without quote). ----------------------------------------------------------------
