🚀 go-pugleaf

sharx@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca wrote:

: Well, MY money is with Microsoft and Intel.

For the forseeable future, that's where I'd put mine too.

Sure, I've seen some buggy stuff with Windows 95 (freezing up on accoasion
and requiring a reboot comes to mind), but even if they don't fix them
with Windows 98, they are still in a dominant enough position that they
will be calling the shots for years to come.

Other major operating systems, like O/S 2, will have to be able to run
programs that are designed to run on Windows.  With the price of a lot of
software, I don't think the average user will be all that interested in
replacing the operating system *and* the word processor *and* the
spreadsheet program *and* SimCity 2000 *and* the Internet browser *and*
. . . .  In short, other operating systems will have to be designed to
mimick Windows.

Where, in the future, I can really see something happening is if Microsoft
starts taking the attitude the big three automakers took back in the
seventies.  The big three sat in their position of market dominance and
kept churning out substandard products.  Next thing they knew, there were
Hondas and Toyotas and Nissans all over the place.  The auto market has
never been the same since.

The other scenario, involving the U.S. D of J breaking up Microsoft, will
be a factor *if* it can be shown that Microsoft is using its market
position unfairly to undermine the competiontion.  for this reason, I
don't think we will see Apple and Lotus and Netscape and Corel going out
of business in the near future, at least not in any way that can be traced
back to Microsoft.

--
John Fleming
Edmonton, Alberta

email:     johnf@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
web pages: http://www.freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/~johnf
           http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/6070


- Only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how
  magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

                                                   R.M.Nixon  1913-1994

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