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- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!gatech!concert!rutgers!cmcl2!panix!rmah
- From: rmah@panix.com (Robert Mah)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
- Subject: Re: Mac OS on PC
- Message-ID: <1992Dec22.030801.21693@panix.com>
- Date: 22 Dec 92 03:08:01 GMT
- References: <Nazedgi-191292222643@stiles-kstar-node.net.yale.edu> <BzMIu1.H4F@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC
- Lines: 51
-
- In <BzMIu1.H4F@news.cso.uiuc.edu> cole@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Sandra Stewart-Cole) writes:
-
- >In <1992Dec20.074726.12708@panix.com> rmah@panix.com (Robert Mah) writes:
-
- >>In any case, if Apple DID make hardware, and sell a portable OS and gained
- >>substancial market share, then the FTC would come knockin'. Note that
- >>they are already investigating Microsoft, and MS doesn't even control
- >>(directly) any hardware.
-
- >I doubt it would be a problem with the FTC. Their problem with MS is not this
- >sort of thing, but the way MS works it's OS and apps software divisions.
- >Theoretically, MS's app developers know no more about Windows and DOS internal
- >than anyone who has gone thru the normal open paths to develop Windows and DOS
- >software. (i.e. they guys writing Word for Windows aren't supposed to know
- >about any calls that Joe Schmoe who bought the Windows SDK doesn't) This has
- >become clearly a problem with Windows, since there are clearly problems with
- >Windows software where MS's apps use undocumented features that add value.
-
- Have you seen the book "Undocumented Windows"? It even points out where MS
- apps have used undocumented calls. Could that book be one of the reasons
- the FTC has been making a bit more noise of late?
-
- >Apple's risk in this area is if Claris products start to (a) dominate the
- >market and (b) clearly benefit from proximity to Apple. There is nothing
- >illegal in dominating a market, or even in selling all the pieces. What is
- >illegal is to create a purportedly open market (say in application development)
- >and then withhold proprietary information in order to dominate that market.
-
- Actually, it is illeagel to "dominate" a market. A company or group of
- companies (a trust) may not hold monopoly status in any market without the
- express permission of the feds. These laws are called the "anti-trust"
- statutes and were put in place some time ago.
-
- >That is what the FTC seems to be looking into at MS. On the face of it, MS is
- >guilty (ask any Windows d3eveloper about standard file dialogs... MS products
- >use them but they weren't documented until very recently) but essentially
- >pleads incompetence (i.e. "we couldn't get everything documented fast enough")
- >I wouldn't be surprised if eventually MS ends up going the way of AT&T..
-
- It seem that MS is guilty of the charge of not fully documenting Windows.
- But I'm not sure that this should be considered non-competitive behavior.
- Although MS is powerful, they are not powerful enough that there are
- substancial barriers to entry in either applications or operating systems
- software markets.
-
- Rob
- --
- [--------------------------------------------------]
- [ Robert S. Mah | "Every day an adventure, ]
- [ rmah@panix.com | every moment a challenge." ]
- [--------------------------------------------------]
-