“Is Microsoft a monopoly?”–by KAZ Vorpal
“Actually, they are the least restrictive of all businesses in
any industry.”
“Microsoft, unlike any other company in any other industry, can
do absolutely zero to keep you from getting access to operating
systems. You can go out and get Linux, free, at any time. you can
buy a Mac, Sun, Sparcstation, or other PC that doesn’t have
Microsoft Windows on it and never did. You can install BeOS,
Rhapsody, Solaris, Caldera, Redhat, or many other commercial
operating systems on your Pentium compatible computer. Unlike an
oil company that owns 90% of the industry and can cut back the
supply of oil until supply is less than demand (so it can raise its
prices through the roof), Microsoft could not cut back the supply
of operating systems in any way. If it ever cut back the supply of
its own operating systems, which nobody accuses it of doing anyway,
people could simply buy other kinds instead, or even get one that
is free and is the second most popular OS, after Windows.”