This is the letter I wrote to microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov . I encourage all
of you to do the same.
Gnorb
-----
To who it may concern;
Since when is the United States in the habit of rewarding Monopolists by
allowing them to extend their sphere of influence? Microsoft offers to
settle by giving under powered computers to schools, loaded with their
over-priced software. In this case, even valuing the software at $.01
is over-priced. This is tantamount to letting a criminal value the worth
of his own dollar in a cash settlement ("Yes, this dollar should be
valued in 1951 standards..."). Furthermore, what has been offered is the
equivalent of having told a Gasoline monopolist that their punishment is
to put MORE gas stations up in neighborhoods where they don't hold a
monopoly. In this case, however, when you put their gasoline in your car
you could put no other products other than theirs - gas, oil,
transmission fluid, etc. - or those approved by them.
I believe the reasoning behind your decision is based on your lack of
knowledge of the REAL issue at hand. Microsoft has never been a monopoly
because of their Internet browser. So what if they've endowed their
Operating System (OS) with web browsing capabilities? Unix has had the
same abilities for over 30 years! The problem is their licensing
agreements with computer manufacturers, which state that any company
that distributes Windows with their computers is NOT ALLOWED to display
support for ANY other OS. How do you justify one company controlling
the policies of another separate and private entity? Whatever happened
to an open economic system?
If you truly want to punish them for their monopolistic practices, you
will do the following:
1) Agree to the Red Hat proposition which would force Microsoft to buy
1,000,000 computers instead of 200,000. Red Hat has agreed to install
their industry standard Operating System, Linux, for free on all
1,000,000 computers, complete with all source code (something which you
are now battling Microsoft to open up). If you feel uncomfortable with
one company installing their own operating system on all systems, then
you can also enlist the help of various other Linux companies, such as
SuSE A.G., MandrakeSoft, TurboLinux, eSmith, as well as Non corporate
entities, such as the Debian Linux Project and the Free Software
Foundation. All with full source code, all with open standards, all who
work with the air of cooperation in their business dealings. This would,
of course, include the support of Linux's creator, Linux Torvalds, of
Transmeta, Inc.
2) Force them to open up their File Format standards and specifications
(this is the extension on your documents, such as .doc for a MS Word
Document and .xls for an Excel style sheet). This would force the
company's products to compete in an equal playing field with other
office suites, such as Corel's WordPerfect and Sun's StarOffice, as well
as non corporate entities such as the Open Office project and AbiSource,
instead of cornering and forcing customers into using their products.
3) Force the company to recant all licensing stipulations which call for
their products to have a place of exclusivity on any other company's
distributed system. Directly, DO NOT allow them to "own" the boot sector
of any machine in which their Operating system is installed. This would
allow Hardware companies such as Dell and Compaq to pre install other
Operating systems, such as Linux and BeOS (as well as any new operating
system which might appear) and give them equal prominence in a system,
allowing the end consumer to make the decision, thereby allowing a truly
open and free market to balance itself out.
Thank you for your time and may God grant you the wisdom to do the right
thing.
Sincerely,
Norbert Omar Cartagena
Voter
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:04:32 EDT