[TriLUG] Ford Drops Windows for their Sync System

[Steve Litt]

On Mon, 24 Feb 2014 15:29:15 -0500 (EST)
William Sutton <william at trilug.org> wrote:

> Netscape -- polluted their own codebase so badly that they opened it
> up to open source developers to clean up the mess.  they scrapped it
> and made Mozilla, now Firefox, which has itself become a bloated mess.

I can't speak to their code base, both because I haven't seen their
code, and because I'm not a good enough programmer to judge a code base
whose linecount is 6 or 7 figures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers

But what I can say is that their codebase caused them no problem
whatsoever in the marketplace until Microsoft came along and illegally
tied Internet Explorer to the operating system. Don't take my word for
it, ask Judge Jackson.

> WordPerfect -- quality product that Novell bears some additional 
> responsibility for killing

Perhaps for not reviving it, but not for killing it. WordPerfect was
already essentially dead when Novell bought it, let alone Corel. See
paragraphs 90-132 of the "COURT'S FINDINGS OF FACT" in the Microsoft
Antitrust trial, remembering that the findings of fact and the finding
of law were never overturned, just the penalty was overturned on
appeal. Here are the findings of fact:

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm

Sections 90-132. I couldn't find a citation to support this, but I
suspect witholding API information was how Microsoft Killed any hope
WordPerfect Corporation had to making a reasonably competant
WordPerfect for Windows. I've heard many times that Microsoft used
undisclosed API calls in MSOffice that their competitors were not made
privy to.

But anyway, anyone thinking Microsoft was "just another corporation
doing sleazy things to get ahead" should read the Findings of Fact.
It's pretty scary.

And anyone thinking Microsoft is not a threat, through dirty tricks and
not marketplace superiority, should look no farther than secure boot.

SteveT
Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance