Thinker : Computers : Microsoft Memo
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I thought that I could write a faked letter from a friend of a Microsoft employee to a third person. The letter would describe a fictitious memo from MS that describes how MS plans to dominate the future of global network communication. I would send it to one of my real friends as if I were just passing on another of the emails that get passed around. If he bought into it, he would pass it on. What I made up suddenly carries a lot of weight. If written properly, my memo could have influenced the public debate over Microsoft ethics. As it was, I found it hard to write the story properly.

Here's what I have:

The concept of Write Once Read Anywhere" is counter to Microsoft's profitability. Therefore Microsoft should ensure that the Company remains at the center of every significant Internet activity in order to ensure that the dominance of the Company is never compromised.

Further, it spells out the consequences of an imagined scenario: write once read anywhere comes to be that standard. HTML formatting grows by leaps and bounds and quickly exceeds that of standard office products such as Word. Almost overnight, Microsoft's dominance of the Office tools used around the world is brushed under the rug. Users once again have choice in office products. Without the forced imposition of using MS Office tools, many millions upon millions of users are no longer compelled to choose an Operating System compatible with the Office Tools they previously were tied to. Thus Microsoft's Operating System monopoly is within a few short years reduced to an equal share with Apple. Several more powerful and stable OS's already in existence but currently on the margins sweep the computing world.

Microsoft has continued to enforce it's Internet dominance on several fronts. Fragment the standard html tags, so that it's own browser will have features that other browsers don't.Force their browser on users.fragment the browser by adding proprietary tools—ActiveX, etc.

computers
Fix the OS | Know Me
operating system
Fix the OS

First written Tue, Jan 6, 1998
Last published Wed, Jun 2, 1999