12 July 2006
What's the deal with Microsoft?
So they just released a new version of Messenger (Windows Live Messenger) which is part of a series of free tools under the name Windows Live. But wait! What are all these things? It's Google: search, customizable home page, toolbar, academic search, local search, satellite maps... It really is a blatant copy of Google's stuff.
What else has Windows users been offered lately? Anti-virus, anti-spyware, tune-up tools, security scans... (most of it now also under the Windows Live banner) Sounds like Symantec maybe? (or others, this area is more competitive)
Oh and then this week I was looking for the new Pirates movie and I came accross another movie entitled Pirates of Silicon Valley which is suposedly the history of Microsoft and Apple, via Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Well Steve Jobs looks like a total freak and Bill Gates like a thief. I guess most of the basic facts are true, in which case Microsoft bought MS DOS from a guy and later got the graphical user interface OS (Windows) from copying the Macintosh (Apple got the technology from Xerox).
So Microsoft is basically a big company that copies others. And since it has huge financial power, it can just squash the competition with its big fat... err naze, most of the time. Isn't that a nice business model.
What else has Windows users been offered lately? Anti-virus, anti-spyware, tune-up tools, security scans... (most of it now also under the Windows Live banner) Sounds like Symantec maybe? (or others, this area is more competitive)
Oh and then this week I was looking for the new Pirates movie and I came accross another movie entitled Pirates of Silicon Valley which is suposedly the history of Microsoft and Apple, via Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Well Steve Jobs looks like a total freak and Bill Gates like a thief. I guess most of the basic facts are true, in which case Microsoft bought MS DOS from a guy and later got the graphical user interface OS (Windows) from copying the Macintosh (Apple got the technology from Xerox).
So Microsoft is basically a big company that copies others. And since it has huge financial power, it can just squash the competition with its big fat... err naze, most of the time. Isn't that a nice business model.
