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From: [e-mail] (Jeroen T. Vermeulen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Conspiracy????  Yes We Know.  Back to Bed.
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 96 15:34:46
Organization: Leiden University, Mathematics & Computer Science, The Netherlands
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This particular Conspiracy thread sounds more like an attempt to miss a
conspiracy than to find one, but here's my .0198958 dollars...


In article <4gjkki$[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Benjamin Hutchings) writes:

<first, on a side note:>

> OS/2 was a joint attempt by Microsoft and IBM to draw users away from the
> backwardness of MS-DOS/PC-DOS while remaining a degree of compatibility. This
> wasn't initially successful, so Microsoft rethought their plans and came up
> with Windows instead, which fits on top of MS-DOS rather than replacing it.
> IBM did badly because clones offered strong competition while IBM's new
> standards - PS/2, OS/2 and MCA - were not adopted by most other PC makers and
> hence meant IBM no longer defined the de facto PC standard.

I thought Windows actually evolved out of Presentation Manager, the GUI for and
supposedly stepping-stone towards the gleaming future of OS/2?

<on to more serious business>

> Never attribute to conspiracy what can adequately be explained by stupidity.
> Who in C= management would see it in his interest to destroy the company?

Now let's not resort to frantic Anti-Conspiracy Theories either... :-)

There can be no denying that the competition would have liked the Amiga dead.
Many times the amount of Mehdi Ali's salary were at stake.  So whether or not it
actually _happened_, the _preconditions_ for sabotage from within CBM management
were obviously present.  Putting aside the question of whether or not there was
a conspiracy for a moment, we definitely are beyond the point where a rhetorical
"cui bono?" can resolve anything...

For indications of possible sabotage from within see:

 * the A600/A300 blunder (offering less value for more money),
 * the decision to take the A500 out of production when it was the company's
   most profitable product at the time,
 * the huge stocks of A600 built up just before they were obsoleted by the A1200
 * The Adventures of Dave Haynie,
 * Mehdi Ali's pro-MS propaganda,
 * the Ed Goff Pricing Scandal,
 * the A3000+ disaster,
 * the refusal to let the engineers finish AAA (apparently they were aiming
   for an optimistic '91 release.  Confirmation?) in time,
 * dropping the A3000UX,
 * the complete and very thorough botching-up of the AS225 networking SW,
 * Jack Tramiel and the Atari ST

Now some of these may be explained by stupidity but when things get this
suspicious you can no longer *assume* there is no foul play; that attitude would
be the active encouragement of corruption.

In court, the suspect is assumed innocent by default.  But during a police
investigation the possibility of a crime is assumed by default. How many cases
of corruption could ever be uncovered when investigated on the basis of "avoid
the notion of conspiracy if at all possible"?

It is a good thing that the possibility of any conspiracy is carefully
considered.  If you think that solely the possibility of coincidence is enough
to quiet all suspicions then perhaps you should reconsider which side of the law
you are really on.

If there turns out to be no conspiracy, so much the better.  But wouldn't you
rather be *sure* that there is no conspiracy?  I know I would.


> Ben Hutchings, student. Finger me on [e-mail] for various info.
> email: [e-mail]  WWW: http://sable.ox.ac.uk/~worc0223/
> Users of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your Micro$oft software

--
============================================================================
#  Jeroen T. Vermeulen   \"How are we doing kid?"/   Yes, we use Amigas.   #
#---  [e-mail]    ---\"Oh, same as always."/--         ...          --#
#[e-mail] \ "That bad, huh?"  /  Got a problem with that? #