🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ubA*f4Noo@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,
  damerell@chiark.greenend.org.uk wrote:
> If their applications division is separate from their OS division,
> they no longer have the same interest in having their applications
> only run on Windows; they can maximise their profit by porting them
> everywhere.

David,

You are assuming that it is possible to make more money by selling and
supporting MS's Application software on multiple platforms than by
selling and supporting it only on Windows. I believe this to be a false
assumption.

First, which applications are you referring to? MS makes a lot more
than just Office. Must they port them all? Surely MS Works need not be
ported to Solaris?

Second, do you have any idea how much money it costs to support
multiple platforms? They have to train staff in multiple platforms,
purchase enough machines of the other platforms, double their QA for
those platforms. Worse, they'll now have to test their products not
just based on the schedule for Windows 98, NT and CE, but also for the
release schedule of the other platform.

How many users of those other platforms are there? Are you sure the
market is big enough to compensate for the expense of entering it?

By the way, which platforms will they have to support? How few is too
few customers for them to support? They don't have to port to CP/M 86,
do they?

I hope you see there's a lot more to this question than meets the eye.

Finally, what's this got to do with the case that's up before the
court? This case is about the OS, IE, and maybe Visual J++.


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