Palm Says Microsoft/DOJ Settlement Is Inadequate
In accordance with anti-trust law, the Department of Justice has published comments submitted on its settlement of the anti-trust suit against Microsoft. Palm Inc.'s comments are very critical of Microsoft and the settlement itself.
Palm starts off by accusing Microsoft of "already engaging in actions designed to unfairly extend its personal computing operating system monopoly into the mobile computing market by eliminating competition and preventing free customer choice." According to Palm, the settlement between the DOJ and Microsoft doesn't do anything to stop what Microsoft is already doing and doesn't do anything to prevent future uncompetitive actions by Microsoft.
Earlier in this case, it was ruled that Microsoft does have a monopoly in desktop operating systems. Despite a commonly-held belief, just having a monopoly isn't illegal. What is illegal is using that monopoly to take over other markets. Microsoft has been found guilty of doing this and the settlement between the company and the DOJ and nine states is intended to prevent this from happening in the future.
This settlement has proved quite controversial. Some of the states that were originally a part of this case are looking for a much more restrictive settlement, on the grounds that this one is the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. There will be testimony from witnesses, including ones from Palm, on this in March.
In its comments on the proposed settlement, Palm says handhelds are a threat to Microsoft's monopoly on desktop computers as they can already perform many of the information storage and retrieval functions of a desktop PC and will take on more of the functions traditionally handheld by PCs as they develop further.
Because of Microsoft's monopoly, in order for handhelds to work with desktop computers they have to work well with Microsoft Windows, Office, Exchange, Visual Studio, and others. There are no real competitors so there are no options for handhelds to turn to.
According to Palm, Microsoft has already taken steps to insure that handhelds that don't run Microsoft's Pocket PC OS are at a disadvantage when working with Microsoft Office and other products, even if that means deliberately changing the applications
Palm referenced an email from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates that ordered its developers to alter Microsoft products to ensure that Microsoft's "PDA will connect to Office in a better way than other PDAs even if that means changing how we do flexible schema in Outlook and how we tie some of our audio and video advanced work to only run on our PDAs." This email was written less than thirty days after the conclusion of the original trial in this case.
This is an example of exactly the uncompetitive activities the Sherman Anti-trust Act was designed to prevent. Handhelds running the PPC OS will work better than their competitors, not because they are designed better, but because Microsoft has a monopoly in desktop operating systems.
According to Palm, Microsoft continues to do this sort of thing. In the near future, Microsoft plans to roll out its ..NET initiative. This will involve removing many Microsoft applications from users PCs and handhelds and instead have them served by an Application Service Provider (ASP), either over a company's internal network or over the Internet.
Microsoft has refused Palm access to information and software interfaces necessary to let Palm to make its products interoperable with some Microsoft products and technologies, including some elements of .NET. Also, Microsoft has attempted to force Palm into deploying .NET software on Palm handhelds under terms that would put the Palm OS business at a prohibitive disadvantage.
Having, hopefully, established that Microsoft is unfairly using its monopoly, Palm turns to the settlement that is supposed to prevent it from doing so in the future. From Palm's standpoint, the single biggest fault with the settlement is that "it does not appear even to attempt to address handheld industry competition." All the remedies are about desktop computers and their software.
It doesn't discuss .NET at all. As Palm says, "It fails to ensure that Microsoft will not use distributed Internet-based (.NET) applications to eradicate the competitive threat of non-Microsoft platforms".
It doesn't force the company to give out information Palm needs to make its apps work as well with Windows and Office as Microsoft's own handheld software does.
Some people may feel that Microsoft has a right not not cooperate with companies it views as competitors. However, because Microsoft has a monopoly, it is in a very odd situation. While it can continue to have a desktop monopoly, it can't use that to to gain monopolies in other areas, like handheld computers.
If it did, Microsoft could potentially gain more and more monopolies and eventually come to control the entire U.S. economy. That is what happened near the end of the 19th century with Standard Oil and preventing this is the purpose behind the anti-trust legislation being enforced against Microsoft.
Thanks to Alan Hoyle for the tip. -Ed
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RE: Sad sad story.......
RE: Sad sad story.......
Maybe my Pc and windows will follow next. (Hey the new iMac doesn't look so bad you know!)
RE: Sad sad story.......
The whole Microsoft suit was not borne out of MS being a monopoly rather Bill Gates failure in the early 1990's and pony up a big campaign payoff...er I mean contribution to the Clinton administration. I guess the $50,000 wasnt enough compared to the 1 ro 2 million dollar "gifts" that were given by other big wigs in the industry.
So my advice to Palm is to shut up, build the better product and take them on head to head. And, in the mean time, quit sniveling...Whineing is for the rest of the world to do, not Americans.
RE: Sad sad story.......
Sure, but not when the "better mouse trap" is judged by how well it connects to the MSFT mouse tunnel!
(You've got to make the tunnel dimensions available first).
RE: Sad sad story.......
Many people have asked why PalmSource doesn't just give up on the Palm Desktop and connect directly to Outlook. Here's your answer, Microsoft won't let that happen. As soon as Palm did so, Microsoft would change Outlook to break Palm's connection to it. And will do so as many times as it takes.
This isn't about the Palm OS being better that Pocket PPC or vice versa. It's about Microsoft using its PC monopoly to make a handheld monopoly.
Read that email from Bill Gates again. This isn't accidental. They is a deliberate plot by the Chairman of Microsoft to break the laws of this country. So which is it, is Bill Gates an idiot or a crook?
Doesn't this make you angry at all? Microsoft has seen it can't beat Palm fair and square so it is willing to use dirty tricks. If it can't win through fair competition, it will just cheat.
RE: Sad sad story.......
RE: Sad sad story.......
What?!?!?!
RE: Sad sad story.......
And even if the rich ARE getting richer, don't put the cart before the horse. It takes RICH people to have enough capital to START a business and fuel the economy.....IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT.
Bush (and more importantly, his cabinet) are the best thing that have happened to this country in a long time.
Have fun in your make-believe world.
Clue up, bud.
RE: Sad sad story.......
As for Bush and his cabinet, they are the worst thing to happen to this great nation since the McCarthy era in terms of civil rights, conservation and basic police-state enforcement tactics. Intelligent people not in the pocket of big business will do everything they can to make sure this usurper is dethroned in 2004!
My god, your post makes you sound like the Enron CEO! 8-)
RE: Sad sad story.......
This is probably the most fatuous of Marx's slogans (which is saying something). It is also wrong.
Let's put it in perspective: The slogan was first written in England in the 1850s. Are there any industrial workers today who are poorer than those who toiled in the 'dark satanic mills'? No, working conditions and standards of living today are vastly better than they were in the 1850s. Are today's plutocrats richer than those of the 1850s? Taking into account changes in purchasing power and the impact of income taxes, it is false to say that the rich are richer than they were 150 years ago.
If you want to use ridiculous slogans like these, fine, but they only weaken your case.
RE: Sad sad story.......
1. Obviously you're not intelligent, and you're a whining idiot who doesn't know a thing about reality yourself. Take a course in Microeconomics and Macroeconomics (when you get to college, I bet you're still in Middle School). There's a reason that big business got big--and it wasn't b/c of the government, it was b/c they're educated, got ahead, made money. They're intelligent, and they vote intelligent. That usually equals Republican. Only fairy-tale Hollywood folks (spoon-fed and the real spoiled millionaires) and the people they influence (which is unfortunately alot of gullible people) believe your liberal lie.
2. Bush is a man of principle, which has been foreign to the White House for 8 years prior to his arrival.
3. If you really think he had anything to do w/ the DOJ ruling, you need to go read the Constitution once again (or have you not gotten that far in school?)
RE: Sad sad story.......
He probably voted Democrat in the foolish hopes that he'd get his Social Security when he retires (he won't anyway....none of us will, nor should we)
When the government can run and execute an effective postal system, i.e. mail delivery, *MAYBE* I'll consider pumping more money into it (i.e. DEMOCRAT), until then, I'll pass on giving money to people who want to fart out babies and collect free money, and keep whittling away at some future invention that will make the lives of Americans BETTER. One that will create jobs, and opportunity for people of varying levels of education. Now THAT's a REPUBLICAN...a REAL American.
I'm so sick of this case.
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
BTW pls don't talk about 'great products'. It's precisely tactics like the above that killed a lot of truly great products and companies...it must NOT happen yet again.
Thank you Microsoft
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
Both fail to notice that the world is actually bigger than their own back yard.
Both think in black and white: if you're not with us, you're against us.
Both do not accept people who have an opinion of their own.
I won't even comment on the first poster's "great products". That person needs medical assistance.
Cheers,
Jan
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
RE: I'm so ... whatever ...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24096.html
"...This quite sensational document opens up a new chapter in the competitive saga, and means Microsoft has a new, wealthy public opponent of a kind it's not encountered before..."
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
While I applaud his charitable contributions, it just doesn't make up for the fact that the bulk of his wealth comes at the expense of choice, and through that, the jobs of a multitude of small companies that would have had a chance were it not for the cannibalistic tactics Microsoft has employed throughout the years.
Microsoft has not CREATED jobs. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Internet was publicized at the right time, but not solely by Microsoft. The PC price wars resulting in consumer purchases at the scale they were was also not Microsoft's doing. What Microsoft DID do during this period, was to cement their monopoly and discourage or bankrupt competitors using its deep pockets.
What innovation occurred during the reign of Gates was done depsite him, not due to him. Get that right at the least.
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
And if it was not for Bush the case (M$) would be settled by now!
Just my 2c!
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
I for one am very supportive of the president. It bothers me that he is being compared to Bill Gates. One is a leader who has rallied the country since September 11th, the other is indirectly responsible for the production of software that is exploited hourly around the world by hackers.
If Clinton were in office, he'd probably give a full pardon to Microsoft anyway!
I'm so sick of republicans.
I mean, after all, he's the one that gave the justice department the green light to prosicute them, right? He would of course want them to get off as light as pos...
Wait. Why diden't he squash this earlier? Your idea don't fly. Sorry! Go back to listening to Rushie-poo tell his little supply-side fairy tales and come back when you've got something that makes sense.
RE: I'm so sick of this case.
Probably becuase the economy DID begin to fall apart under Clinton. And because Leiberman is involved in the Enron investigation just so he can cover his own ASS. And also because I'm right, the president should not be compared in any way to the man who makes the world feel insecure about using computers because his operating system is hacked hourly.
(Has anyone else noticed that Windows 2000 is having critical updates posted about once a week lately?)
--------------
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definately isn't for you.
Things WE can do...
Changing existing code to screw up third party programs is nothing new. Forcing hardware resellers to bundle their products with MS software is nothing new either.
The whole new licensing strategy around XP/.NET means only one thing: more control and more cash for Microsoft (well, that's two actually).
But we should admit that we're at least part of it.
Who are all these people who keep buying this software? That's us. Even if you're not paying for it. If you're using it you are contributing to its popularity.
I refuse to 'upgrade' to XP.
I don't want WinCE or any derivative.
It is time to UPGRADE my main machine at home to Linux. I used to work dual boot, but I will not even try to install XP anymore.
Modern distributions like SuSE and RedHat come with every application you could dream of, including office.
Palm,
You're part of the problem too. The standard desktop is Windows. Mac is kind of supported, too. Why not Linux? Mac OS X is Unix-based. Porting that to Linux should be easy. Again, why not?
Reviewers check Windows performance and mention Mac software if it's there and consider it a bonus.
Ed, why not Linux?
These office applications know how to deal with office file formats. Many companies still use office95 or 97. If you can use a neutral file format for them, why not use a neutral file format anyway?
And as for which pda....
Only Palms and Handsprings are readily available over here. The only Sony around here is the N770C, costing more than 500 euro.
The Edge is coming down in price fast (€279), so maybe that's a nice candidate?
Cheers,
Jan
/*
putting up flame shield
*/
RE: Things WE can do...
But the problem is that sometimes we don't have choice. If you are going to buy a new PC, the chance of having Windows OS preloaded is 99%. Under windows OS, the chance of having MS Office is another 99%. The WMP is another 99%.
Linux is not mature yet for non-commercial users.
What are we going to do? Or say .. What can we do?
RE: Things WE can do...
Many harware sellers will sell you a machine without windows if you ask for it. There is also an initiative going on for a Windows Refund.
This page: http://www.linuxmall.com/refund/ calls itself their homepage. Must be more of them around.
Many companies and indeed governments are considering a switch to Linux for at least a significant part of their machines. You don't have to change all of your machines at once. Mail servers, file/print servers, intra/internet servers will perform fine with Linux. Usually even better than their Windows counterparts.
Major companies like IBM, SUN and on and on support Linux with their products.
The point is: you've got to start somewhere. Why not now?
Just say yes.
Cheers,
Jan
RE: Things WE can do...
Hypocrites
they of course have to pretend
RE: Things WE can do...
It is interesting for the idea to get refunded, but I don't know how the process works, and personally I have not tried myself. I bought clone computers most of the time.
Yes, the commercial users are switching to Linux. It is a definite trend. Unless Linux and Linux-based software companies get the money paid by commercial uses and re-invested into future development, end users will have a difficult time to switch away from Microsoft.
Some of us have tried Mandrake and/or Redhat. How easy is to use that? If I ask my neighbor just to try it for a few weeks, they will quit using it in maybe just the first hour. Not all people all techies. And people are afraid to "break" their computer.
Linux is not mature for non-commercial uses (end-users) yet.
RE: Things WE can do...
Everything Microsoft does is right. It's great that soon Microsoft will control all desktops, servers, handhelds, home electronics, cars, phones, cameras, and anything else electronic. That's not too much power for one company and one man to have. I trust Bill Gates to be absolutely honest and it doesn't make me nervous that soon he'll have total control of almost every part of my life. He would never, never abuse that power for his own personal profit.
Brought to you by the Campaign to Give Bill Gates Absolute Power
RE: Things WE can do...
I run StarOffice instead of Office. I use Netscape Mail instead of Outlook. Windows 2000 is only around to play my games - there are alternatives to Microsoft.
I like my Palm!
RE: Things WE can do...
I'd also like to see a report on current Linux support for Palm devices. I know there are a few programs out there but I'm not about to experiment with them on my own m505 : ) I'd love to see Palm Desktop ported to Linux though. In fact, that could tie in well with IBM's and Sun's push for Linux mindshare.
---
Sir Tez
IT is a rough life
RE: Things WE can do...
---
News Editor
RE: Things WE can do...
It seems they are not doing enough themself!!
IMHO:
There are enough projects out there trying to connect the pALM platform to something else but linux and Palm is to arrogant to support them!!
They're diging their on grave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RE: Things WE can do...
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Sad sad story.......
Shame on Microsoft for depending on these sort of repulsive tactics to maintain dominance. It only shows they've run out of ideas and their days as a major tech force are numbered.