Microsoft Hatred FAQ 5185
On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 04:06:16 -0700, "David Schwartz" said :
If all of the hardware is known to Linux, that can work, and Linux has gotten much better at being able to recognize and auto-configure lots of devices. But picture that...
I am going to summarise this then drop out. My blood pressure is at a boil.
I was a computer retailer. We built custom computers. I had 8 people working for me. This was in the time prior to Win95 when IBM had a clearly technically superior solution with OS-2 to MS's Windows 3.1
I had no contract of any kind with MS. I never bought anything from them directly. I was far too small a fish. I bought the components including software through dozens of wholesale suppliers.
MS threatened to put any retailer out of business who would not co-operate with them in extorting money from people who had no use for MS Windows who explicitly for various reasons did not want to buy MS windows.
To me that is no different from a popsicle manufacturer demanding I sell $200 popsicles with every machine I sold. The machines needed MS Windows no more than they needed a popsicle.
The particular way MS threatened to put me out of business was by threatening to arm twist all wholesalers to refuse to sell MS product to me, which any retailer needed to survive in those days.
Mike Schilling Is that really true? I mean, I remember distributions of Linux that you could just stick in...
It was obviously quasi legal or the threats would have had paper to back them up so I could go to court now to sue the f***ers. -- Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
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