Microsoft Hatred FAQ 5176

Yes, it certainly is. However, it is also Microsoft's right as a seller to refuse discounts to those who also sell competing products. You may not particularly what operating systems your customers use, but Microsoft does.

You may want to start a restaurant that sells both Big Macs and Whoppers. But I don't think you'll get either McDonald's or Burger King to let you. Perhaps this hurts your freedom, your ideas of morality, or whatever, but the reality is that these companys don't want you selling both their products and competing products.

It is McDonald's position that a Big Mac is superior to a Whopper and there is no reason to pick a Whopper over a Big Mac. To them, a store that sells both makes no sense.

Microsoft's corporate view at the time was that an x86 desktop without Windows was a brick. And if you want to sell bricks, they don't want their customers dealing with you.

When you sell a product, you also mention that product in your advertising. When you sell competing products, you take some customers who want the product you advertised. That is why a lot of products are only sold through exclusive dealerships.

Microsoft, like any other company, has the right to set the conditions under which its product is sold. Prohibiting the distrubution of competing products is not really all that unusal, and the agreement Microsoft actually insisted on was much less restrictive than that.

Is it fair to Microsoft if the big "Windows" sign on your store and in your advertising brings in customers looking for Windows and you then sell them OS2?

DS