> When Hewlett Packard(tm) actually sunk so low as to design and sell a
> "printer", that is not a PRINTER at all, but an electromechanical
> extension of the "Windows(r)" Operating System, I knew the end was near.
>
> It is only a matter of time before there will be no more PC/AT Clones.
> We are now approaching the time where future "computers" will be
> electomechanical extensions of the "Windows(r)" Operating System.
>
> Money is power. Whether or not "Windows(r)" is a defective Operating
> System makes no difference at all. Mr Gates. has defined the new era
> of "computers" to be extensions of his (defective) operating systems(s)
> and that-is-that. Mr. Gates has a larger legal department than
> General Motors (last years INC rag).
>
> Note that there are even "Gates" extensions encorporated into new
> hardware chip-sets and even new BIOSs announce "Locating the boot-
> loader..." when they start to boot. Eventually, if the boot-loader
> isn't "Windows(r)", the machine will not boot (period).
>
> This is not a conspiracy. This is simply the future being planned
> by PC Hardware manufacturers with the open involvement of Mr. Gates.
Well, then it seems to me that what you are REALLY saying is that it is
not Windows that will be dominant so much as it is the Windows API and
that if Microsoft were forced to release that API in excruciating detail,
Linux could outwindow windows. Let Microsoft keep the Windows code but
force them to release the Windows API so that other operating systems
could compete for the same applications on a level playing field. It is
at that point sort of like having the copyright to the formula for
Gasoline and being an engine manufacturer at the same time. Keep the
patent on the engine but release the formula for the fuel so that others
can build competing engines.
I think this, in a nutshell, is what the Caldera lawsuit is all about.
They do not want the Windows code, they want the API so they can buld a
DIFFERENT platform that will be capable of allowing a user to drop an
application into Linux or some other OS and allow it to run.
Microsoft is now going to hide behind NT because it is explicitly exempted
from the consent decree. They will be forced to release the Windows API
at about the time they announce that they are abandoning it.
George Bonser
Just be thankful that Microsoft does not manufacture pharmaceuticals.
http://www.debian.org
Debian/GNU Linux ... the maintainable operating system.
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