
                    What is the problem with Microsoft?
                                      
   In today's world of computing you come across the name Microsoft
   wherever you look. Many people even consider Microsoft and computers
   to be equivalent. But if you take a closer look, you will see that
   Microsoft's contribution to computer science is not worth mentioning
   and in most cases rather negative. Unfortunately the public seems to
   be very poorly informed, even in the press you constantly read about
   the amazing innovations and the genius of Microsoft. In the following
   I am going to explain with some examples why this picture is not only
   totally wrong, but also very dangerous.
   
                        (last updated: 20-May-1998)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Table Of Contents
   
     * Products
     * Marketing and Methods
     * Espionage and Hidden Features
     * Errors And Lies
     * Peronal Notes
       
     * Appendix A: Quotes
     * Appendix B: no comment
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   I. Products
   
   In general Microsoft software is superior to their components'
   products only in one aspect: marketing. I ask you to name one single
   innovation that originated from Microsoft. Features in Microsoft's
   software are in most cases ideas which have been taken from other
   companies, or they can be seen as a try to improve certain parts of a
   program which Microsoft apparently was not able to make better. As a
   result you get bloated, buggy, and slow programs.
   
   Examples for the implementation of other companies' ideas can already
   be found at things as elementary as the GUI (Graphical User Interface)
   of Windows. Just take a look at the windows of the NeXTStep operating
   system, e.g. at the buttons to close such a window. You will be really
   surprised. But even in detail concepts show up that have simply been
   stolen by Microsoft. It seems like they neither have the ability to
   innovate nor do they have the appropriate technology. To prove that
   you should take a look at a so-called WAV-file and compare it to a
   file format called IFF (Interchange File Format) which has been
   developed by Electronic Arts and Commodore for the Amiga computer. The
   only real difference is the marker stored in the first four (!) bytes.
   
   Those who dare to take a look at the announced new features of Windows
   NT 5.0, which still has to be released at the time I write this, will
   recognize that these revolutionary and innovative abilities could be
   found in Unix-systems for decades. User Quotas? Accessing devices
   without the use of C:, D: etc.? Mounting filesystems into an existing
   directory tree? Multiuser-support? Redirecting the output of a program
   to another computer? Yawn!
   
   Even tries to improve evident weaknesses are related to as an
   innovation never seen before. Let's take the Long File Names which has
   been introduced together with Windows 95. Now it is possible to give
   your files names that are longer than eight characters, to which file
   names were limited in earlier versions of DOS and Windows. This
   limitation has its origins in the operating system CP/M. In their
   enthusiasm people tend to forget that there is effectively no other
   operating system with similar limitations. AmigaOS, MacOS, IBM OS/2
   (native), unixoid systems (e.g. Linux) are examples for systems which
   have simply never known any sick problems like that. Furthermore, new
   programs, especially designed for Windows 95, are necessary to make
   use of long file names, old software can still only use short file
   names. Windows has quite a job to do to let both worlds co-exist.
   
   Microsoft has not really made the use of computers simpler. There are
   two possibilities to make the use of any device easier. Normally you
   would improve the interface between man and the machine, i.e. to think
   of an easy possibility to access all functions of a device. Microsoft
   tends to choose a second way. Windows appears easy to work with mostly
   due to the fact that Microsoft does not let you control your own
   computer. Why does Windows start the program ScanDisk after formatting
   a disk without asking?
   What happens when you boot up your windows computer? You get a nice
   picture, but you have no clue what Windows actually does. In earlier
   times the output of every single command was printed on the screen to
   let you observe the process. Nowadays you have to trust Windows
   blindly. Whenever something does not work you can do nothing but guess
   what is wrong again. The user is totally dependant on Microsoft.
   
   That brings me to a point. Nobody would try to drive a car without
   having had some lessons and having taken a look into the manual. But
   almost everybody expects to be able to work with a computer instantly.
   You cannot deny the customer's guilt in the effectively non-existent
   knowledge about technical issues.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   II. Marketing and Methods
   
   This really makes you wonder what are the reasons for Microsoft's
   success, which is an obvious contradiction to the quality of their
   products. Even the aggressive marketing does not explain that
   phenomenon sufficiently. Microsoft is well-known for their dubious
   practices they use to preserve their enormous power.
   
   A common strategy is the manipulation of established standards to tie
   the users even closer to Microsoft. An example is Java, a programming
   language developed by Sun. Java makes it possible to code programs
   which can be run on any computer regardless of the operating system.
   This is an advantage not to be under-estimated when talking about the
   internet, except for Microsoft, because Java makes you independent of
   Windows. Every program is written specifically for a certain operating
   system. That means programs written for Windows or Macintosh only run
   on Windows or a Macintosh respectively. (There a so-called emulators
   to run programs of various platforms on a computer, but that is
   another story.) But Java uses an interpreter to translate programs
   (written in Java) for the computer you use, which makes the programs
   platform-independent, i.e. they can be run on any computer.
   Microsoft's reaction was the release of a Java development toolkit
   which makes is possible to use windows-specific features in your
   programs. If you use these features your programs will run on Windows
   only, which is contradictory to the intention of the Java developers.
   But from Microsoft's point of view it has the positive effect of
   forcing the users to use Windows.
   
   Another example of their methods is that they give away programs for
   free. The average user could be happy about this, but we are talking
   about Microsoft: "dumping", i.e. giving something away at a loss, is
   illegal. This is obviously not a problem for Microsoft. In the past
   lawsuits against Microsoft have been proven to be ineffective thanks
   to the their power - and their lawyers. The bad thing about dumping is
   that other companies may be dependant on the sale of their products,
   while Microsoft can give them away for free because of the big money
   they make in other areas. Microsoft can easily ruin their competitors
   that way.
   
   The Internet Explorer is such a product. Even many Internet Service
   Providers use the Internet Explorer as their standard browser,
   "persuaded" by Microsoft. Netscape Navigator is no longer been offered
   by most ISPs, or you can get it optionally only. In one case Microsoft
   forced an ISP to sign a contract which said he must not inform his
   customers about the existence of browsers other than the Microsoft
   Internet Explorer and remove all links to and logos of other companies
   who offer similar products.
   There are sites on the internet, not only in the Microsoft-owned MSN,
   which will not let you pass with the offer to download the Microsoft
   Internet Explorer if you use Netscape Navigator. But that is only half
   of the story. The Internet Explorer 4.0 shows Microsoft's unmatched
   ability to innovate. Tries to access the homepage of Netscape, the
   only competitor left when it comes to web browsers, is blocked. You
   will only get some confusing error messages - none of which is true.
   Microsoft Frontpage, a program to create and edit HTML-Files, on which
   every single web page on the Internet is based, even manipulates
   existing files without asking in a way that parts of them are no
   longer readable with Netscape Navigator. In most other branches of the
   industry no-one would accept this, but when it comes to Microsoft,
   that's okay...
   With the release of the successor of Windows 95 the problem with
   non-Microsoft internet browsers will be gone - the Internet Explorer
   is going to be part of the operating system without a possibility to
   remove.
   This reminds me of Microsoft's argumentation that the Internet
   Explorer would be part of Windows, similar to the many utilities
   installed together with Windows 95. I would like somebody to explain
   why the Internet Explorer is not only sold seperately as a standalone
   product, but is also available for other platforms such as the Apple
   Macintosh. Well, I'm waiting for a new version of notepad; perhaps
   there will be a version for MacOS soon?
   
   Microsoft often uses a method similar to dumping, where you try to
   prevent customers from buying your competitor's products by telling
   them of the great features and possibilities of their own product. But
   - that product does not exist. Windows 95 is an example for that
   tactics. A long time before the release you were able to learn about
   the superior abilities of the unborn child. They changed the release
   date quite a few times, finally Windows 95 saw the light of day one
   year too late. Remember what you have been told these days? A newly
   designed operating system? No underlying MS-DOS? Pre-emptive
   multitasking? Little memory requirements? Most of these promises were
   not exactly true or simply dirty lies. But nobody seems to care about
   that...
   
   The most important internet products are part of Windows since the
   release of Windows 95B. The "advantage" is clear. Why should anybody
   care to get Netscape's Navigator if the Internet Explorer is already
   installed on their computers, bundled with Windows 95?
   While installing Windows 95 you can choose which components should be
   installed on your computer even if they occupy some lousy kbytes only.
   That is not true for the Internet Explorer - there is no way to
   prevent this piece of software from being installed. You will not even
   know about this because the internet software is not even shown in the
   list of the components of Windows.
   Microsoft tries to tell you what to do. Many users obviously are not
   aware about the existence of programs they have never heard of before
   on their very own computer.
   
   To the time IBM had some success with their own operating system
   called OS/2, you could see a typical behaviour. A well-known german
   discounter started to ship their computer systems with OS/2
   preinstalled, instead of Windows. Microsoft threatened to refuse to
   sell them Windows if they continued even to advertise OS/2. Only
   Windows should be installed on PCs. It is not a surprise that there
   has been no sign of OS/2 since then.
   Even employees of Compaq and Gateway 2000 "confirmed in sworn
   deposition testimony" that Microsoft made the shipping of Windows
   dependent of the removal of Netscape Navigator in favor of Microsoft's
   Internet Explorer in one case and the sale of other Microsoft products
   in another.
   
   Microsoft thought of a new way to increase their profits with Windows
   NT, the "bigger brother" of Windows 95. There are two versions of
   Windows NT: Windows NT Workstation for the "average" user, and Windows
   NT Server for the use in networks. NT Workstation lacks some of the
   features and is somewhat slower then NT Server. Microsoft tries to
   explain that with optimizations and internal improvement of Windows NT
   Server. O'Reilly and Associates took both versions apart and analysed
   them. They discovered that the only difference between the two
   versions of Windows NT can be found in two (!) entries of the
   so-called registry, which holds configuration data. These entries have
   been encoded by Microsoft with quite some effort to hide their
   existence. If you change these entries in NT Workstation, it will show
   all features of NT Server, behave exactly like it, even the
   differences in speed are gone. That is no big surprise - the system
   files of both versions are exactly the same.
   Microsoft sells one product for two totally different prices (NT
   Server costs about three times as much as NT Workstation) and tries to
   tell people, Windows NT Server would be totally different than NT
   Workstation. To achieve this they manipulate, not to say castrate NT
   Workstation to make the stupid customer buy the more expensive NT
   Server.
   
   I would prefer not to comment on Microsoft's rather undemocratic
   attitude. So I let the vice president of Microsoft do this job.
   After Pacific Bell signed a contract with Netscape, CEO David Dorman
   received a phone call from Microsoft's executive vice president, Steve
   Ballmer, who began with the words: "You're either a friend or a foe,
   and you're an enemy now."
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   III. Espionage and Hidden Features
   
   Even in early version of MS-DOS you can find "undocumented API calls".
   It is an operating system's task to provide functions applications can
   use to work with files, communicate with periphery and much more.
   There were - and still are - functions which have not been documented,
   but still are quite important. Because Microsoft sells operating
   systems as well as applications there is an unjustified advantage for
   Microsoft, who can use these functions while their competitors are not
   able to take these "short cuts".
   
   Many Microsoft products, most famous Microsoft Office, change your
   system without telling you about it. In most cases you get to know
   that not until another program refuses to work. When Windows 95 was
   released there have been enormous problems with programs giving you
   access to America Online or CompuServe. They could not be used
   anymore, because Microsoft thought it would be cool to alter a certain
   file (winsock) these programs are dependant on. It certainly was pure
   coincidence that Microsoft's own Online-Service MSN was introduced at
   the same time, with the programs necessary to use it integrated in
   Windows 95.
   
   To the time of Windows 3 there was a clone of MS-DOS named DR-DOS.
   Unfortunately Windows would not install when DR-DOS was used instead
   of MS-DOS. Did that mean DR-DOS was not fully compatible with MS-DOS?
   Pretty soon it became public that Microsoft programmed a routine that
   would refuse the installation if a competitor's operating system was
   found.
   If you had OS/2 installed on your system, it would not work any longer
   after an installation of MS-DOS 6. According to Microsoft there was no
   way to avoid this, but strangely enough MS-DOS or Windows would still
   work after an installation of a competitor's operating system.
   
   It is not really nice to spy on users, which seems to be the only
   purpose of the "registration wizard" that can be found in Windows 95.
   I have to tell first that when using a program you have to "register".
   To do so you send a postcard to Microsoft which says you have just
   acquired a certain program. It has to be doubted what the registration
   is really good for, because Microsoft gets to know your address that
   way, God knows what they can do with it. In my opinion there is no
   other reason than to get this data - or have you ever told an author
   that you bought a book of him?
   It is now possible to register Windows 95 with a call at Microsoft,
   i.e. using your modem. The computer then transmits all necessary data
   directly to them - and much more. Your hard disk drive will be scanned
   and the existence of certain programs will be transmitted to
   Microsoft. When it became public Microsoft tried to justify this with
   the possibility to inform users about updates (newer versions of a
   program). But that does not explain why the registration wizard looks
   for non-Microsoft products and even software for children and games,
   which obviously cannot be updated. (An analysis of how the
   registration wizard works is available to me.) The only explanation I
   have is that Microsoft tries to create profiles of users, since you
   can derive that information from the scan of a hard disk. Most people
   certainly cannot imagine the abuse possible with that data.
   
   But there is even another possibility for Microsoft to spy out data.
   You write your programs in form of commands, which is called the
   sourcecode. This code is compiled by a special program, i.e.
   transformed into numbers readable by the microprocessor only. The
   original sourcecode cannot be derived from these numbers (trivially),
   which should be the normal thing; no baker would be happy about the
   possibility to get his recipe from the cake he sells. But exactly this
   is what Microsoft did. The compiled sources written in a programming
   language called "Visual Basic" contain information with which it is
   possible to regenerate the sourcecode. This got public not until
   respective programs left the buildings of Microsoft by accident.
   Microsoft is able to get the sourcecode - and with that the
   corresponding know-how - of other companies.
   
   Microsoft expects the developers of graphic adapters to have their
   drivers (software that make the use of certain hardware possible in a
   computer system) certified by them. To do so they want to have a look
   at the sourcecode of these programs. The reason apparently is not to
   make sure the drivers work correctly, but to obtain other companies'
   secrets, since you can expect the developers of hardware to know what
   they do. Obviously you cannot expect that from the market leader in
   software. Where else can you find an industry where one company can be
   that arrogant and make manufacturers of accessories tell them their
   secrets?
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   IV. Errors and Lies
   
   Error #1: MS-DOS is an ingenious invention of Bill Gates
   What most people do not know: MS-DOS was not done by Gates, it was not
   even done by Microsoft. When IBM looked for an operating system for
   their IBM PC in the early 1980s, they planned to use one of Digital
   Research. But in the end they asked Microsoft, who did not have any
   operating system by then. So Microsoft simply bought a product from
   another company. This system was called QDOS - Quick And Dirty
   Operating System - the name says all you have to know about it.
   MS-DOS, the standard for the upcoming decade, originated from that
   piece of junk. Microsoft acquired an enormous power without actually
   doing anything. The only intelligent move was to "license" MS-DOS to
   IBM instead of selling it. (even today you do not buy a product
   according to Microsoft - you merely license it) Microsoft still had
   all rights on "their" system and licensed it to companies that cloned
   the IBM PC. Even Windows is partly based on this original MS-DOS and
   contains every single part that has been added to it since 1981.
   
   Error #2: Microsoft has innovative products and the latest
   technologies 
   As mentioned before most "innovations" of Microsoft originate from
   products which have been around for a long time. The idea to work with
   a computer with the help of a graphical user interface, for example,
   was first thought of by Xerox PARC. GUIs have later been implemented
   on the Apple Macintosh, the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST, just to
   name some of them. These interfaces could be found everywhere at a
   time when Microsoft still thought MS-DOS was state of the art.
   In most cases the only thing Microsoft does is to bring their own
   products to the level of their competitors'. Internet software, for
   example, was not available from Microsoft for a long time and hence
   computer users used non-Microsoft software. When this market changed
   from a meaningless branch to the market of the future, Microsoft
   released their own software and made it available for free (see
   above). Netscape was the pioneer of the internet to a time when
   Microsoft considered internet users to be a group of idiots. But now
   Microsoft has obtained a respectable market share and the average user
   does not know about the background, obviously due to the manipulative
   marketing which is typical for Microsoft. Today Microsoft is
   associated with the growing importance of world wide computer
   networks, forgetting that they never contributed to anything of it. On
   the contrary: think about the release of proprietary technologies such
   as ActiveX or the manipulation of Java to expand their monopoly to the
   world of the internet.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   V. Personal Notes
   
   I really do not understand why people accept the fact that one single
   company controls most of today's computer technology. I do neither
   understand why many people have the goal to establish ONE single
   computer architecture respectively ONE single operating system. You
   often hear about the necessity to use a windows-based system to run
   programs that require Windows, but that is just a lame excuse. There
   (still) is a wide variety of different systems. For every kind of
   program you can find a similar one that runs on the architecture of
   your choice. Common programs such as word processors, spread sheets,
   data bases etc. are available on every system you can think of anyway.
   
   Many people consider Windows to be a standard, but when you take a
   closer look you will see a major difference between the nature of
   standards and Windows. Standards do not belong to certain companies
   and can be found in a vast variety of implementations. The rights on
   Windows, however, belong to Microsoft, and the only operating which is
   capable of running programms written for Windows is Windows itself.
   That means Windows cannot be a standard, it is a monopoly at best.
   
   Microsoft tends to point out that it does not have a monopoly and that
   competition can be found everywhere. Now let's have a look at
   hardware. The price for some hardware components drop up to 50% or
   even more in only one year. In many cases you can't even purchase a
   product, let's say, three years after it was introduced to the market.
   I chose three years as an example because Windows 95 is roughly three
   years old by now (at the time this text was written). You will see
   that the price of Windows 95 has not dropped by a single cent since
   then. Well, this has to be the healthy competition...
   
   The argument of being urged to use file formats of so-called standard
   software (e.g. Microsoft Office) is neither a reason to run Windows,
   since most of the competitor's software available can read and/or
   write these files. And given the case you are not dependant on these
   file formats, you will find many programs that existed long before
   supposedly superior graphical user interfaces have been established.
   By using these programs you can solve your problems much easier and
   with better results in many cases, for example with LaTeX.
   This is another example of Microsoft trying to tie users to the
   company by establishing proprietary interfaces (in this case file
   formats). Another stupid and dangerous argument is to use Microsoft's
   products because their software is often used and can be found
   everywhere. It is very easy not to think, but to do what everybody
   else does, to do what you are told, isn't it?
   
   Talking about file formats brings me to another point. With the new
   version of Microsoft Office (Office 97 - containing Word, Excel,
   PowerPoint, Outlook and eventually Access), a new file format was
   introduced, which is not compatible with older formats, i.e. files
   written with Office 97 cannot be read with older versions of Office.
   In my opinion this was done out of markting reasons only, because if
   you want to read the new files you will have to buy Office 97. It is
   not a problem to create a file format that can be expanded for the new
   features of future programs. The above mentioned Interchange File
   Format, which was developed for the Commodore Amiga computer, makes it
   possible for programs to read the files of newer versions even if the
   file format has been dramatically enhanced. There are different
   methods to achieve this and various implementions can be found today.
   Another hint for the correctness of the above theory is the fact that
   since Microsoft does not hesitate to take ideas of other people and
   integrate them into their own products, which has been done when they
   used the IFF technology in the the file format of WAV-files, the
   existence of these possibilities should be well known.
   
   Another thing worth mentioning is the existence of a video on the
   Windows 95-CD which shows the names of all beta testers. In this video
   a song has been used that was originally a so-called Module and has
   been converted by Microsoft, apparently without permission. This song
   is a remix of "Enjoy the silence" with the name "Enjoy the violence".
   Coincidence?
   
   The combination of the first three aspects (products, marketing and
   methods, espionage) shows the danger of Microsoft's power. The
   fixation on Microsoft is even less understandable due to the
   possibility to use non-Microsoft products. Perhaps that does not match
   some people's idea of convenience (so-called "Mitlufer"). After some
   time they will see that they do not have an advantage by using
   Microsoft's inferior products. As long as competitors still exist you
   should have a look at their software. It normally makes promises come
   true Microsoft was not able to keep.
   
   There are other reasons for the omnipresence of Microsoft's products.
   It happens quite often that the use of alternatives is not even
   considered, regardless of the suggestions of experts in a company.
   This is not solely due to Microsoft's marketing. In many cases
   chairmen of companies are contacted and manipulated by Microsoft
   employees. Once this company declares to cooperate, the removal of all
   non-Microsoft products will be forced.
   
   What possibilities do we have to overcome the current situation? The
   easiest way would be not to use Microsoft products any more, but that
   does not seem to be easily possible because of the goal of many people
   to reduce everything to one single truth. It is quite difficult to
   find a solution that ends the dominance of Microsoft without denying
   the further existence of Windows. Nevertheless I want to introduce two
   possibilities.
   First you could split Microsoft into several tiny companies, one of
   which continues the development of Windows, one takes care of
   application programs, and yet another one sells hardware. Considering
   the monopoly Microsoft has established, this solution sounds quite
   reasonable. Yet there are major disadvantages. You cannot make sure
   the companies really work independantly of each other, and since they
   are led by the same persons as before, you cannot expect them to
   overcome their aggressive and immoral methods.
   Another possibility very likely cannot be done, but yet seems to be
   the most promising. Microsoft should give up all rights on Windows.
   The further development should be done by an independant, non-profit
   organization with the help of experts, considering the needs of users.
   In this case Windows could be established as a standard, since it is
   no longer controlled by single persons or groups. The only
   disadvantage of this solution can be seen in the vast amount of
   technical deficiencies of Windows. It should be easier to develop a
   new system from scratch than to try to overcome the problems of
   Windows.
   Just to mention it, there already is an operating system that matches
   all the requirements mentioned above and which even is technically
   very advanced: Linux.
   
   At last I have to say a word about the press. You often read about
   Microsoft's new and fascinating achievements which has been brought to
   the people by Bill Gates' infinite kindliness. In 1997, I read about
   the upcoming Windows 98 which is the successor of Windows 95. It said:
   "Microsoft develops new operating system". Since the new version of
   Windows has been enhanced by some new device drivers and a somewhat
   changed look only, it is not only not a new operating system, it does
   not even deserve a new name.
   In most magazines specialized on computing you can find a
   pro-Microsoft-propaganda which even people with a clubfoot would be
   proud of. You can do nothing but ask how editors are able to write
   such a nonsense without blushing. And since general magazines tend to
   be even more biassed there is no way to call these articles objective
   either.
   The only hope is that people will recognize what is going on. In
   general, not only in this special case, it is not acceptable that any
   human or group tries to establish their ideology as the only one
   accepted with methods that are immoral at best, illegal at worst.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Appendix A: Quotes
   
   If Microsoft had been the innovative company that it calls itself, it
   would have taken the opportunity to take a radical leap beyond the
   Mac, instead of producing a feeble, me-too implementation.
   - DOUGLAS ADAMS, Author, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
   
   The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
   to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
   ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate
   technology, led them into it in the first place.
   - DOUGLAS ADAMS, Author, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
   
   I feel as if I am fighting Microsoft for the right to use my own
   computer efficiently.
   - STEWART ALSOP, Fortune Magazine
   
   Every single thing that Microsoft says and does is designed to protect
   their monopoly.
   - ALAN BARATZ, President, Sun JavaSoft Division
   
   Windows 95 is so bad, I hardly know where to start.
   - JESSE BERST
   
   Microsoft's ability and willingness to control proprietary standards
   that span the world's computing resources is in fact dangerous.
   - JOHN BLACKFORD, Editor, Computer Shopper
   
   Microsoft does not innovate. It buys, imitates, or steals. It makes
   things difficult for software developers, and thus eventually for
   users.
   - RICHARD BRANDSHAFT, San Jose Mercury-News
   
   Microsoft, I think, is fundamentally an evil company.
   - JAMES H. CLARK
   
   Wahr ist da es ihm [Bill Gates] nichts ausmacht, ohne Wrde zu
   gewinnen. Ein Sieg ist immer noch ein Sieg.
   - ROBERT X. CRINGELY, "Die Jungs vom Silicon Valley", ECON Taschenbuch
   Verlag GmbH, 1993
   
   'Wir wollen das Software-Geschft monopolisieren', sagte Gates in den
   spten 70er Jahren immer wieder. In den 80er Jahren deutete er dies
   auch gerne an, aber da hatte Microsoft schon PR-Leute und Anwlte
   angeheuert, die ihrem jungen Vorsitzenden zuflsterten, da der
   Begriff im offiziellen Vokabular des Unternehmertums eher verpnt war.
   - ROBERT X. CRINGELY, "Die Jungs vom Silicon Valley", ECON Taschenbuch
   Verlag GmbH, 1993
   
   Microsoft wurde eine Art Kultsttte. Unerfahrene Leute wurden
   eingestellt und quasi-religis indoktriniert [...] So schuf Microsoft
   eine systemimmanente Heldenverehrung, und Bill Gates' Wille
   infiltrierte alle Lebensbereiche seiner Angestellten, sogar
   derjenigen, die ihn noch nicht einmal kennengelernt hatten. Fr Kim Il
   Sung funktionierte es in Nordkorea, also funktionierte es auch in den
   stlichen Vororten von Seattle.
   - ROBERT X. CRINGELY, "Die Jungs vom Silicon Valley", ECON Taschenbuch
   Verlag GmbH, 1993
   
   Die Leute bei Microsoft glauben auch mit Vorliebe, da ihre Produkte
   auf dem neuesten Stand der Technik sind. Wenn man anderer Meinung
   wre, wrde man ja Chairman Bill angreifen, und sowas tut man nicht.
   Es ist einfacher, die Realitt zu verzerren.
   - ROBERT X. CRINGELY, "Die Jungs vom Silicon Valley", ECON Taschenbuch
   Verlag GmbH, 1993
   
   There is a fantasy in Redmond that Microsoft products are innovative,
   but this is based entirely on a peculiar confusion of the words
   "innovative" and "successful." Microsoft products are successful --
   they make a lot of money -- but that doesn't make them innovative, or
   even particularly good.
   - ROBERT X. CRINGELY
   
   The problem (and the genius) regarding Microsoft's products is bloat.
   Microsoft's penchant for producing overweight code is not an accident.
   It's the business model for the company. ...
   While [bloatware has] made Bill Gates the world's richest guy, it's
   made life miserable for people who have to use these computers and
   expect them to run without crashing or dying.
   - JOHN DVORAK, PC Magazine
   
   If you say something he doesn't like, he yells at you.
   - BRONWYN FRYER, Information Strategy, about Bill Gates
   
   In a manner that would have left the robber barons of the late 19th
   century gaping in absolute awe, Microsoft is approaching something
   unprecedented: a monopoly that could well own the choke points of
   tomorrow's commerce and communications.
   - DAN GILLMOR, San Jose Mercury News Computing Editor
   
   This is very Borg-like. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
   - SAMUEL GOODHOPE, Texas Attorney General's office
   
   Most curious is the desire to standardize on one OS and one CPU
   architecture. Depending on a single company for all future OS
   innovation and on another for all future CPU innovation would be
   tragic for an industry driven by technology.
   - TOM R. HALFHILL, Sr. Editor, BYTE Magazine
   
   Microsoft now has the ability to virtually annihilate any competitive
   product it wants by bringing it into the next version of Windows.
   There's evidence that they are aggressively seeking to extend that
   monopoly to the Internet, and policy-makers have to be concerned about
   it.
   - ORRIN HATCH, U.S. Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary
   Committee
   
   [...] Microsoft has taken a perfectly good standard, broken it, and
   then told us that we have to buy expensive programs that support the
   broken interface rather than use the free ones that come with all
   operating systems in the world except Microsoft operating systems.
   - ALLEN HOLUB, Programmer and Columnist
   
   Microsoft does not like negative or even objective press coverage and
   they have a tendency to be a bully about it. If something appears that
   they don't like, they have the ability to punish the publication.
   - BOB INGLE, President, Knight-Ridder New Media
   
   My view of Microsoft is that they had two goals in the last 10 years:
   to copy the Macintosh and to copy Lotus' success in the applications
   business. And they accomplished those goals. Now, they're kind of
   lost. I've told Bill that I think it's in Microsoft's best interest if
   NeXT becomes successful because we'll give him something to copy for
   the rest of this decade.
   - STEVE JOBS
   
   I still think that tens of millions of PC owners needlessly use a
   computer that is far less good than it should be.
   - STEVE JOBS
   
   [Bill Gates] definitely scares me. He embodies the very cultural and
   economic forces that have transformed American mass media from the
   freest and most diverse in the world to among the most cautious,
   greedy, and useless.
   - JON KATZ, Hotwired
   
   Oil and water. Fried eggs and chocolate sauce. Amanda Vanstone and
   human compassion. Microsoft and open standards. Can you spot what all
   these pairings have in common? Yes, none of them actually belong
   together.
   - ANGUS KIDMAN, APC News Editor
   
   When Microsoft announces future technology plans, product feature sets
   or (heaven help us) release dates, I laugh out loud. Its reputation
   for sudden changes of plan, vapourware frenzies, total contradiction
   and frantic scrambling around the facts is unsurpassed in the modern
   computing world.
   - ANGUS KIDMAN, APC News Editor
   
   Microsoft und der groe Vorsitzende Gates als Herrscher ber die
   Medien, ihre Inhalte und ihre Finanzen - eine Horrorvorstellung, die
   angesichts der internen Struktur von Microsoft das
   Informationsministerium in Orwells Staat von 1984 wie einen Hort der
   Demokratie erscheinen lassen.
   - JRGEN KURI, Redakteur, c't Magazin
   
   To hear Microsoft tell it, you'd think the Computer Age had changed
   the rules of commerce. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates has
   argued that the government is trying to structure an industry it knows
   little about. This is nonsense. What Gates is attempting is as old as
   the efforts to monopolize the steel, rail, oil, and telephone
   industries in the robber baron era.
   - ROBERT KUTTNER, Business Week
   
   Every time you turn on your new car, you're turning on 20
   microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you're using a computer.
   Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I'm using a computer.
   The only computer you don't know how to work is your Microsoft
   computer, right?
   - SCOTT McNEALY, CEO, Sun Microsystems
   
   I am convinced that if General Motors could eliminate [Microsoft]
   Office from their entire company, they could get the 1999 cars out
   next year at half price
   - SCOTT McNEALY, CEO, Sun Microsystems
   
   If one company dominates everything, it's dangerous. You kill
   innovation and you lose the capacity to create alternatives.
   Ultimately, that isn't good for the consumer or the country.
   - SAMUEL MILLER, U.S. Justice Department
   
   I don't think that the world needs another market dominated by
   Microsoft. I have enormous respect for the company, but I really get
   nervous about markets where one vendor has such power.
   - GEOFFREY MOORE, Marketing Guru
   
   I think anybody who is savvy about this market knows that Microsoft is
   getting away with stuff it probably shouldn't get away with.
   - GEOFFREY MOORE, Marketing Guru
   
   What we'll all end up doing if Netscape doesn't play better is we will
   have instantiated the Microsoft Network. We'll just call it the
   Internet.
   - GEOFFREY MOORE, Marketing Guru
   
   Appeasement, said Winston Churchill, consists of being nice to a
   crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last. At the moment, the
   biggest crocodile in the world is Microsoft, and everybody is busy
   sucking up to it.
   - JOHN NAUGHTON, the London Observer
   
   '[S]trategic partnerships' are means to a single end: to enable
   Microsoft to learn enough about particular businesses eventually to
   dominate them.
   - JOHN NAUGHTON, the London Observer
   
   [Microsoft] is the fox that takes you across the river and then eats
   you.
   - PETE PETERSON, Former Executive, WordPerfect
   
   I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply
   suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need
   an interpreter.
   - NICHOLAS PETRELEY, Sr. Editor, InfoWorld
   
   The best thing about Windows 95, of course, is the mountains of
   software designed specifically for it. There are programs to compress
   memory, recover a damaged registry, remove the heaps of unneeded files
   Windows accumulates, tune sluggish performance, and undo a few of the
   many problems that can occur when installing new software, to mention
   but a few. There is even software designed to intercept system faults
   to improve your chances of saving your work before you have to reboot.
   - NICHOLAS PETRELEY, Sr. Editor, InfoWorld
   
   Microsoft has gotten so big that it can put out a Preview that will
   install itself without checking first to see if it has expired. The
   message here is that Microsoft's time is worth more than yours.... no
   start-up company could get away with being that arrogant.
   - JERRY POURNELLE, Byte Magazine
   
   Microsoft is trying to sell us crack, and the first taste is free. But
   what's it going to mean when we're addicted to this?
   - LEIF QUAKEMAN, The Netly News
   
   Microsoft now is in 40 percent of American households. If they can
   somehow insert themselves in as a piece of infrastructure in the next
   generation of televisions, they could go to 100 percent penetration of
   American households and eventually the world.
   - BARRY RANDALL, Analyst, Dain Bosworth
   
   Stop Microsoft through government antitrust enforcement now or say
   goodbye to new products and the openness of the Internet. Gates will
   own everything, and collect a fee on every imaginable product and
   service in cyberspace from home finance to a virtual visit to the
   Louvre. And forget about getting these products and services someplace
   else. Competitors won't exist.
   - GARY REBACK, Antitrust attorney
   
   They [Microsoft] are trying to use an existing monopoly to retard
   introduction of new technology.
   - GARY REBACK, Antitrust attorney
   
   Suppose you made a desktop application like a spreadsheet and all of a
   sudden Microsoft were to call you one day and say "you know, we've
   just decided we're not gonna give you the information necessary to let
   you write a product that runs on top of our operating system. On top
   of our desktop."
   I mean, what would you do? You go, you look at the room, you stare at
   the ceiling? What would you do, call me, file a lawsuit? You're a
   little company, come on.
   - GARY REBACK, Antitrust attorney
   
   When people understand what Microsoft is up to, they're outraged.
   - TIM O'REILLY, President, O'Reilly & Associates
   
   Forcing PC manufacturers to take one Microsoft product as a condition
   of buying a monopoly product like Windows 95 is not only a violation
   of the court order, but it's plain wrong.
   - JANET RENO, Attorney General
   
   Microsoft is unlawfully taking advantage of its Windows monopoly to
   protect and extend that monopoly.
   - JANET RENO, Attorney General
   
   People who are truly donating to charity don't give money away with
   the agreement that recipients will spend it on their own company's
   products.
   - PAUL RICKARD, The Microsoft Boycott Campaign
   
   You'll read that Bill Gates envisioned it all, which is a crock. he
   didn't invision any of it. Nobody did.
   - ED ROBERTS, Gates' First Boss
   
   [Paul] Allen was easy to work with, but Gates acted like a spoiled
   kid, which is what he was.
   - ED ROBERTS, Gates' First Boss
   
   At some point, some palooka is going to tell you that you should use
   MS products because they're an "industry standard." This is roughly
   equivalent to teenagers telling each other to smoke or do drugs
   because "everybody's doing it."
   - JOHN "The Gneech" ROBEY
   
   Microsoft's biggest and most dangerous contribution to the software
   industry may be the degree to which it has lowered user expectations.
   - ESTHER SCHINDLER, OS/2 Magazine
   
   [Microsoft is] a potential threat to our nation's economic well-being.
   - STANLEY SPORKIN, Judge
   
   [Bill Gates] not only wants to win, but he wants to kill the
   competition. He wants to bury the wounded.
   - JAMES WALLACE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
   
   Dilbert would use Unix because it is a rock solid OS with thousands of
   academic and business hours in its development and improvement.
   Dilbert's pointy haired boss would make Dilbert use Windows because
   Microsoft told him that he would save money and get a free t-shirt.
   - NATHAN WINKLER
   
   Word97: An EMPTY file saved in Word97 format occupies 60928 Bytes. The
   same file saved in the backward compatible Word95 (or better known as
   Word 7.0) format is sligthly larger: 2 079 932 bytes. Any comment is
   superfluous...
   - c't MAGAZINE, April, 1997
   
   We finally finished installing the new servers. For performance
   reasons, we decided to drop Microsoft Windows NT and return to Unix
   again. We did this while we were still on the temporary server and
   even that machine which was a Pentium-90 with only 32mb RAM
   out-performed the NT Server that was a Pentium-200MMX with 96mb RAM.
   Needless to say, if we were not sure about the move before then, we
   were afterwards.
   - GAME SITES NETWORK WEB SITE NEWS, 11-22-1997
   
   [...] IBM was a benevolent dictatorship. Microsoft is just a
   dictatorship
   - technology consultant, anonymous
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Appendix B: no comment
   
   Ensuring that we leverage Windows. I don't understand how IE is going
   to win. The current path is simply to copy everything that Netscape
   does packaging and product wise. [...] My conclusion is that we must
   leverage Windows more. Treating IE as just an add-on to Windows which
   is cross-platform [is] losing our biggest advantage -- Windows
   marketshare. We should dedicate a cross group team to come up with
   ways to leverage Windows technically more.
   - JIM ALLCHIN, a top Microsoft executive, in an internal document
   entitled "Concerns For Our Future"
   
   You're either a friend or a foe, and you're an enemy now.
   - STEVE BALLMER, executive vice president, Microsoft, to Pacific Bell
   CEO David Dorman after Pacific Bell chose Netscape's Web software over
   Microsoft's.
   
   What do you mean by that? You dont know what you are talking about.
   - BILL GATES on a press conference to a question implying that maybe
   Microsoft on the desktop is not the answer to everything.
   
   There are people who don't like capitalism, and there are people who
   don't like PCs, but there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like
   Microsoft.
   - BILL GATES
   
   We are a great software company.... That's the only image anyone
   should have of us.
   - BILL GATES
   
   There won't be anything we won't say to people to try and convince
   them that our way is the way to go.
   - BILL GATES
   
   It's possible, you can never know, that the universe exists only for
   me.
   - BILL GATES
   
   If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.
   - BILL GATES
   
   640K ought to be enough for anybody.
   - BILL GATES, 1981
   
   [...] the best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write
   programs, and to study great programs that other people have written.
   In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center
   and I fished out listings of their operating system.
   - BILL GATES
   
   Wir hatten solche Browser als Teil von Windows angekndigt, bevor
   Netscape berhaupt existierte. Schon die erste Ausgabe von Windows 95
   enthielt einen Browser.
   - BILL GATES
   [Notiz: Wie man sich leicht berzeugen kann, besa Win95 in der ersten
   Version keinen Browser, dieser wurde erst mit "Plus!" eingefhrt. -
   Ed.]
   
   Focus: "But there are bugs in any version which people would really
   like to have fixed."
   Gates: "No! There are no significant bugs in our released software
   that any significant number of users want fixed. [...] Maybe you're
   not using it properly."
   - FOCUS MAGAZINE, 10/23/95
   
   The idea that people know what they want is wrong.
   - LAURA JENNINGS, Vice President, Microsoft Network
   
   One World. One Web. One Program.
   - MICROSOFT, Internet Explorer 4 ad
   
   We need your fax number in order to respect your wishes not to receive
   unsolicited faxes.
   - MICROSOFT Web Page
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                                            Gurki in 1998
