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I doubt if anything the courts decide will "ruin" Microsoft or inhibit the
free flow of commerce or reduce Bill Gates wealth.
The so-called breakup of Standard Oil about 100 years ago did not reduce the
wealth of John D. Rockefeller or inhibit the oil industry in any meaningful
way. The more recent breakup of AT&T has not caused any reduction of phone
service or of technological development in the communications field.
Lionel Issen
lissen@xxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Christian Baude <BAUDECB@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 1:46 AM
Subject: Re: Question....
Let us all remember that Dr. DOS was about $89, MS DOS $49, CPM/86
over $149, Concurrent CPM $349, dBase when first released $600+.
Visicalc $350, WordStar $299, Managing Your Money $149, Dollars &
Sense $199, etc. More recently Stacker $89....
Furthermore, in the case of dBase, each developer had to pay a $25 fee
to Ashton Tate for creating dBase code. THIS was the developer
(effectively a salesperson for Ashton Tate) promoting dBase and
creating sales for dBase. Since when does a salesperson have to pay
to sell?
I predict software companies will now be free to gouge the end user.
The software will be piecemeal, and you will have to pay for every
feature. Appearance of Prolok type encryption will resurface, and
incompatibilities will become the norm...... Unfortunately, because of
this, piracy will only increase.
It's a sad day for the programmers, and end user, and a glorious day
for the software industry's lawyers and bean counters, since they will
potentially be free of Microsoft competition, and can charge any price
they want.
Time will tell.
-÷ Chris ß ÷-
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