[ Thanks to Douglas
D. Darnold for this link. ]
[ This is a white paper published by the Computer &
Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which, along with the
Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), filed the
“friend of the court” brief in the Microsoft antitrust trial that
resulted in judge Jackson’s asking the DOJ to rewrite its penalty
recommendations to include a three-way split of Microsoft – LT ed.
]
“Microsoft recognizes the importance of the network market and
is moving aggressively to control that market much the same way it
moved successfully to control the market for desktop operating
systems and Internet browsers. With the introduction of Windows
2000, Microsoft has provided us with a “crystal ball” into the
future of the company and, perhaps, its opportunity to leverage its
desktop operating system monopoly into dominance of several other
significant adjacent markets. The positioning, packaging, and
business practices surrounding Windows 2000 lead Windows and
Microsoft on an unmistakable and — for consumers and others in the
software market — daunting course. Microsoft executives say
Windows 2000 is “so strategic that Microsoft is going to bet the
company on it.”
“This is the third time that Microsoft has used “convergence” to
move into adjacent markets. The first incident occurred when
Microsoft “converged” DOS with the Windows Graphical User Interface
(GUI), which allowed them to create a proprietary interface
standard for the GUI by leveraging it’s monopoly operating system.
… The second convergence was merging the code of Internet
Explorer with Windows 98. … For these reasons and others
documented in this paper, Windows 2000 deserves careful scrutiny.
Microsoft’s aggressive push for businesses to adopt Windows 2000 –
both on the desktop and server – will almost certainly result in
Microsoft gaining the necessary foothold to springboard itself into
dominating the server market.”
“The implications of Windows 2000 for consumers and businesses
are monumental. The concern is not simply about whether choices
exist among word processing programs or browsers. It is about
design and control of the most fundamental patterns for computing,
networked communications, electronic commerce, and more. It is
about forcing consumers to accept products they don?t want or need,
and preventing other innovations from ever seeing the light of day.
And it raises serious questions: What opportunities will be
available? What information will be accessible? At what cost?”
“By bundling business-critical functions in Windows 2000
Professional – rendered useless with the presence of a non-Windows
2000 Server, but fully functional when coupled with a Windows 2000
Server – Microsoft is using its monopoly position on the desktop to
springboard into another position of dominance in the server
market. These are the same tactics used by Microsoft to
leverage Windows to gain browser dominance with Internet
Explorer.”