Reader responds: Microsoft not unique

I have a wonderful idea. Lets all get together pitch in some money and pay Microsoft to go away. Lets solve all of the computer industry's problems in one quick blow. Then we can all have a huge party for a day and simply glow in the knowledge that the Anti-Christ is gone.

And that is how it will stay, for a week. Then some other company, Sun, Apple, or some other yet to be started, will begin to move ahead in the computer game. They will start making money. They will start creating standards that other people don't like. They will start using their position to push other companies around.

And then we are right back where we are now. I have some really bad news for the computer world. Welcome to the real world. Companies have been doing exactly what Microsoft is doing for as long as people have been around.

What Sun, Netscape and others want is not the wonderful Utopia they claim they are working towards. They want Microsoft out of the way so they can have that much money and power. They are using the weapons at hand, namely dislike for Microsoft and the government's complete lack of knowledge about computers. Microsoft is using its best weapons, its control of the OS market and its massive amount of money.

If you don't like Microsoft don't buy their products. One thing is clear in the US, money talks. If you want to send a message send it with your money. If you look around and find that your best bet is still a Microsoft product you have two choices: Either admit that Microsoft isn't that bad, or write your own software and see if you can play the game.