How many times has Microsoft abused its monopoly?

WHILE I WAS READING the article "Microsoft cuts out more competitors," a question came to mind. Can you (or somebody there) publish on theinquirer.net every single instance that Microsoft has used it's monopoly power to cut out more competitors or done things that look questionable in regards to fair competition? The reason I ask is that I want to write about this bullshit to our local newspaper as well as to my congressman and senator.

It would be nice to have a web page that lists (in simple bullet form or however someone decides) every anti-competitive action or thing Microsoft has ever done and the date of it for reference.

Thanks and regards,
Mark T.

I don't understand why you make this out to be such a big deal. Almost every corporation in the US does this exact same thing. It is not a monopoly abuse to buy a company and use that company to your advantage. If they had to leave all the palm stuff in there, they probably woudln't have bought the company. What's with the Inquirer's anti-Microsof policy? It seems like everyday you people have something bad to say about them. You do not seem to understand how a business is run or something. What kind of jornalism are you trying to push out when you are obviously very biased? I don't mind hearing news, but your site doesn't even come close to news anymore. You are more interested in pushing your own point of view than being objective. I guess I will not visit your site anymore. This is just customer feedback and hopefully someday you will learn how to give the news objectively so I can return. I really enjoy your site at times (lots of good news), but I can't stand hearing about what was in Bill Gates kleenex when he blew his nose last.

Dan Boehm

Just wondering: why do you call Microsoft "the Vole" ? I guess it's a joke, but I don't get it. I tried http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=vole but nothing seems to fit.

Ciprian

Egan Replies

I didn't originate the term, so I'm not an authoritative resource. The term is mentioned in "The INQUIRER guide to INQUIRER jargon" in article http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8069 ... where its definition says "'I am a Vole and I live in a hole.' Microsoft."

The scientific name of the common vole is "Microtus arvalis Pallas".

My own view is that this appellation is rather apt. The vole is a tiny rodent that's almost uniquely single-minded in the pursuit of its prey, because its metabolism is so very high that it must eat more than its own weight every day in order to survive. It's also a ubiquitous garden pest and like all rodents is prone to carry some rather nasty diseases.

Thanks for reading,
Egan

Re: Dell starts auctioning systems on Ebay

I can understand why there aren't any bids. I took one of the Dell items on eBay.

The initial bid price was $1,949 with free shipping, with a "But It Now" price of $2,249. I went to dell.com and configured a system as close as I could to the eBay system and came up with a price of $2,232 before a $200 rebate on the system and a $50 rebate on the service. The rebate would drop the price to $1,982 with free shipping if I order on-line.

The maximum savings would be $33, and the "But It Now" price is $267 higher than the current price on dell.com.

Given the dozens of options it's unlikely that one of the few computer systems for sale on eBay would match a particular person's desires. Someone can either make a bid on eBay, wait for the action to expire, and end up with a system that isn't quite what they wanted, or spend $33 dollars more and get total control on how the system is configured and not worry about whether someone outbids you at the last minute.

B.J.

Subject: OS X Service Pack

Snort - just took a look at the Inq item (doesn't apply to me) and was tickled to see the "Upgrade to Jaguar." page. The CD price for the 2.5 upgrade suggests that "The Leper can't change its spots." would be a more apt description. That $19.95 certainly reflects the standard Apple rip-off pricing for something that costs Apple - at most - a couple of bucks, including postage.

John

Subject: Shock! Microsoft forbid entrance to the Mozilla, Netscape, Opera users.

I've just clicked a link in amdzone.com suposed to take me to the MP9 page
and high definition videos, here is the result:

>From the original link

the server redirect me instead to http://windowsmedia.com/9series/detection/NSPage.asp where explicitly says "We're sorry. This Windows Media 9 Series content is only available to be viewed using Internet Explorer"

So i begin to wonder if is this due to the mentioned browsers inhabilty to render correctly the "Highly Sophisticated Pages of Innovation"tm., Immediately i thought not.

When i started K-Meleon (Mozilla engine browser) the results were the same, then i went to preferences and changed the id string to MSIExplorer and surprise!; the page loaded correctly and i was able to download ad libitum.

Some people think "is not problem, just change the string!" but this way the statistics will continue to (erroneously) favor the MS browser even more, that's the reason the Mozilla developers avoid to implement it by default.

Im sorry to bore you with the never ending story of MS behaviour but i just felt morally obligated to document it. Good bye, and i will allow me to mention that yours is one of my top 5 interesting sites in the net.

sadclown

Re:How to persuade Windows to make home networks work

Ya gotta expect this kinda thing when you use cutting edge features and hardware. I remember having all kinds of fun getting ICS to work with win98se. Eventually it could be made to work but every once in a while bugs would crop up. I would still rather connect to the net through a router on a LAN than use ICS. Every windows network I set up is buggy at first but eventually settles down. It's like adding a dog to the family when you already have 2 cats, at 1st the cats can't stand the dog, hissing and running away. Eventually they become resigned to this stinky new creature and one day you will find them all curled up together on the couch. Of course there will be the occasional spat but then we are talking dogs and cats here after all. Just so, bugs are inherent to computers and software.

john frey

Subject: Microsoft pages messing with Netscape & Mozilla

I use an ad-blocker called Proxomitron to filter out any garbage pop-ups and banner ads from my browser. It's a really versatile program, so versatile that I'm also to modify the headers that my browser reports back to a server.

I currently use Mozilla 1.3. The string that Mozilla reports back to a server normally is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030312

The string Internet Exploiter 6.0 reports back to a server is: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)

So, I set my browser to mimic IE's string, and sure enough the page worked. HOWEVER... I decided to tinker a little bit, particularly with the curious little word "compatible".

Here's the string I tried: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030312

Note that the only change I made was the addition of the word "compatible". I opened up the WM9 page, and it loaded without a hitch.

All the Mozilla or Opera makers need to do is add the word "compatible" to their string and a few pages that Microsoft pretends are incompatible should start working. That is, until IE decides to come up with something new to intentionally break competing browsers. They can always have their pages look for "MSIE 6.0" instead of "compatible", so this likely would be a short lived fix for Microsoft's treachary.

Troy / Xstylus

Subject: poor windows fools

When creating gateways, windows is not the most helpful of systems.

I can heartily recommed e-smith linux. It is the easiest linux install you'll ever find. You'll need a machine with nothing serious on the disk, as there are no partitioning options. You put in the cd, and ten minutes later you have a working gateway.

www.e-smith.org

This is the best, and least known linux distro. This is how it should be. You can even change your machine and easily reconfigure at the console, no kernel recompilation here.

Jon

Subject: Geforce FX Pixel Pipelines 8x1 or 4x2

Hi again,
I think this should be off intrest to you, I am not aware of you having run this story before so I hope that it comes in handy.

Source: Atomic Magazin (Australia)
Short: On the Question to Dr. Kirk if the Geforce FX had 8x1 pipelines or if 4x2, (the former number representing he dodged the question by saying that "...the way the Geforce FX works is mre like a collection of processing elements than individual attached pipelines."

Best regards,
Stephan

Subject: German Version of the DMCA, but your newsdesk forgot to mention
the austrian one

You forgot to notice the german version does include some exclusions for sientifics and private usage, but the austrian version (of our beloved 2nd edition of conservative-haiderfpoe-coalition after the first crashed selfmade) is even a poorer copy of the E.U. variant ... please do not include my name if you going to publish these lines, b/c as a german citizen I don't feel comfortable talking directly about austrian goverment, even when I'm here so long.

matthias

ps: link of the austrian version below

http://www.bmj.gv.at/gesetzes/detail.php?id=28
fulltext

Matthias

Sorry to complain but this comparison test is filled with inequalities that make the comparison invalid in my opinion.

"AMD loses CPU battle at least for a while but I have in mind that Intel could be still caught by AMD, maybe with the new FSB 400 Barton. We expect to see a Barton FSB 400 in next month or two to fill the existing performance gap in AMD's line at least until September before Athlon 64 arrives."

You have two 3ghz P4's, one with an 800 mhz FSB being compared against an Athlon 2700+. Then the tester claims that AMD loses out to Intel.

Other testing anomalies:
1The Epox board listed for AMD doesn't exist according the the Epox web site.
2.For AMD, the memory is listed as: 2 x 256 MB Corsair PC3200 XMS DDR 400 module CL 2 While the Canterwood board gets: Kingmax 2 x 256 MB PC3200 DDR 400 module CL 2.5

So the Canterwood board gets a faster processor but slower memory.

Your site has always been a quality site which as you know I visit everyday. Your hardware tester though IMO needs to make a better effort to compare apples to apples rather than apples to oranges before making performance claims that won't stand up under even the most cursory inspection.

Pat

Subject: About your "Greek ADSL" article

You should really state that the upfront charges don't include the modem price! Can you say 60-200 EUR? An "insider" showed me some models and prices (not stabilised yet, but stabilisation in Greece means that they'll go up!) today. It's no wonder that OTE chose Intracom's models too. Intracom (www.intracom.gr) is probably OTE's (the telco) biggest hardware supplier. Intracom's Netmod (www.intranet.gr/en/products/terminal_equip/isdn_netcon_netmod.htm) is the ONLY Network Terminal unit provided during the last 6 years or so for ISDN telephony. It functions as a serial or USB modem too. I don't have many bad things to say about the unit itself, but we ALL do about Intracom's business practices and its "special" (Bush and Blair comes to mind) relationship. Intracom seems to win every OTE's major "public" competition with "open" offers. Heh. Anyway, here's the link for Intracom's ADSL modems: http://www.intracom.gr/en/products/terminal_equip/adsl.htm. 2 out of 3 of the ADSL modems that OTE will supply, will be Intracom's Jetspeeds. How obvious.

Another thing: the "installation" cost. Oh, I long for the sweet day of OTE's fast and cheap internet installation: some old guy will come to my house and bring me the modem that I purchased in one of OTE's stores (hehe, no, no, no, you can't buy the modem in another store, it has to be one of OTE's; please, mention that when you'll update your article), then as a true expert will interconnect the splitter, the filter and the modem (can you say, "click", "click", "click"?), will tell me that "here's the cd" (old guys don't know about drivers and such evil things) and leave. That's less than 5 minutes but no less than 50 EUR for the "installation cost"!

So, here we are, let's do the math again:
82 EUR: "activation"
50 EUR: "installation" (oh and the cheap filter and splitter cost too; they both cost about 5 EUR)
60 EUR (at least): modem

--

192 EUR BEFORE VAT (18%) -> ~ 225 EUR!

Not to mention that you have to pay for a PSTN (or ISDN) line too! Let's add another 12 EUR monthly fee (for PSTN). And that's BEFORE any ISP charges! I let my insiders for another information hunting (after promising them several "all you can drink" nights out) and guess what? For a 384/128 connection, no less than 45-50 EUR are expected (that's before 18% VAT).

So, we have about monthly fees, are:
PSTN (of course OTE's, what'd you expect!): 12 EUR
ISP: 59 EUR
OTE's ADSL "cost": 55 EUR

-

Monthly: 126 EUR -> ~150 EUR (VAT included)

Summary: we have to pay at least 220 EUR upfront charges and 150 EUR monthly fee for a 384/128 ADSL connection, NOT including phone calls or any other add-on value features.

Since such business practices are dangerous. let's all hail our new pet project:

ote.isdangerous.com

Please forward your readers to ote.isdangerous.com and you can join us in one, errr, two, errr, as many as you'd like, "all you can drink" nights out! Seriously, this is just a free redirector and all files are hosted by Indymedia, so I (or anyone) won't take credit for it (you will though!). I would definitely appreciate if you could host (or put a HUGE link to your article if your policy doesn't allow this) this.

Thank you for your time and consideration. You can certainly include my message as it is (not to mention that I would really like it!).

"Tom"

Just as a note (this is classified information so please withhold my name) the 3 years of "testing" were the result of the wrong routers' delivery. The company spend millions of Euros but as we know in these cases, when you are a small company and you buy from a large company (in this case it was Cisco) and the large company makes a mistake, then you are doomed. OTE didn't make this public because of the embarassment it would bring to both Cisco and OTE and as long as there was no other serious contender in the DSL race in Greece, a few more years of delay weren't important. Because of the wrong routers, instead of 250Mbps (which is the backbone), OTE was essentially receiving only 40MBps..... No further comments...

Email address supplied

I thought that after reading the article about internet-fees and pricing in Greece I'd give you a little comparison to the internetpricing in Sweden. I've been using the net on a daily basis for about six years now. At the time that I were a university-student I paid 15 Euros a month for access to the LAN in my dormitory. Cannot say the precise speed that I got through that LAN, but I guess it was in the range 300-500 kbit/s resulting in downloadspeeds topping out at 60-70 kB/s.

Nowadays, since I no longer am a student, I am sitting on an ADSL-connection. The speed is 512 kbit/s. The cost for modem and installation were at the time (three years ago) 150 Euro and I pay about 35 Euro per month (free download, 24h access). Of course I also have to have a phone-line in and pay a monthly fee for this, but that's a cost I've always had...

Since the days that I got my ADSL the pricing have changed a bit. There are now a few more companies doing a fair bit of competition trying to gain market-share. To sum it up:

If you want an adsl-connexion you can get the modem and installation for free (just have to keep a lookout for the offer), saving you 70-100 Euro that the installation would cost otherwise, and have it up and running in 1-2 weeks. The monthly cost will be ranging from 25-40 Euro depending on company and part of country. The speed delivered can be anything from 384kbit/s to 5Mbit/s, but at additional cost of course...
You could also, if you live in a more rural area where adsl is a rare sighting, go for the more and more popoular Radio-LAN-kind of thing. This will be a bit more expensive to install, but having roughly the same monthly cost. Installation will be about 150 Euro and the monthly cost 30-50 Euro and speed about the same as ADSL.
Cable-modem-pricing is about the same as adsl for the same speeds.
And of you are satisfied with a regular old modem, you could do as my parents =) ... The cost of a 56k-modem (10-15 Euro) and having your son installing it in the computer (for free or maybee some coffee and buns). The ISP here having NO monthly cost and you pay 0.02 Euro per minute using the Internet wich is normal charge for telephonecalls. My mom only checks her mail twice or thrice a month and my dad surfs the web a couple of times a week looking for Motorcycles on second-hand-sites... The total cost for their internetusage comes to 5 or maybe 10 Euros a month if they are much much much online... No additional costs here.

Well, Thats my 2c
Christian Johansson

Having just read the piece about telco costs in Greek, I can make one of two possible conclusions:
(a) The Greeks have it great and just don't realise it, or
(b) us South Africans are being ripped off even worse by Telkom (the one and only local telco).

According to the piece a Greek would pay 0.41 euro per hour for a local call during business hours. Here at the southern tip of Africa we have to cough up R22.25 (approx 2.80 euro) for the same privilege. If the call distance exceeds 50km the cost rises to a whopping R59.40 (approx 7.40 euro) per hour.

Telkom is currently running a "commercial trial" (their words) of ADSL in selected regions of the country. The only option they offer is 512K(down)/256K(up) and the monthly rental and ISP charges add up to about R900 (110 euro). But, here's the kicker: there is a monthly cap of 3GB both ways. The cap is imposed by Telkom itself, so there's absolutely no way around it. A quick calculation shows that you can exceed the cap in about 15 hours of constant downloading. God help you if you forget Kazaa open over the weekend.

Here's a link to Telkom's pricing (Isn't it ironic that they don't even know how to spell "customer"?):

Pierre le Riche
Cape Town

Two SUN Vice Presidents - DIRECTLY contradicting each other......

What this proves is that AMD's "potential" customer base is as screwed up as AMD.

Paul R. Engel

Subject: Your article about Microsoft

I just have two questions, why do you liberal idiots want the government to control everything?
Second, when has the government ever kept anything useful from going into obsurity, I thought that the idea of captialism was like life. Only this strong will survive as the auto industry shows. I guess I can thinkk of one thing in the tech industry that the government has saved from death. Mainframe computers. As everyone else changes to more modern systems, the government is having trouble finding people who can program in cobal and fortran. So I guess keeping this outdated and not being taught in universties as mainstream programing languages that no one in the evil corporate world, that allows us to live the way we do in the United States, uses much of anymore. I'll admit that Microsoft needs to rethink some of the stuff it does, but ya know what, why don't you guys say that instead of well I guess 90% of the damn country is wrong and stupid and should just all do what I think is right. So I guess I will bow down to you Oh mighty Louie IVX (14th) for you can't read roman numerals. And if you don't know who that is, then maybe you should take some history in western civilization to see how the world really works. And as always fuck the french

Gary Myers

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