[thelist] AOL wants to buy RH Linux??

[.jeff]

lachlan,

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> From: Lachlan Cannon
>
> > > in the meantime, wanna talk about a browser market
> > > with little to no competition where the
> > > owner/distributor of the os also owns the browser?
> > >
> >
> > Well, let's see... There's only one company that
> > currently fits your description, Microsoft. Why do you
> > think Microsoft should be the only one who can get
> > away with "no competition where the owner/distributor
> > of the os also owns the browser".
>
> Oh, but hang on, Microsoft weren't allowed to get away
> with that. They were taken to court.
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that's *exactly* what i was trying to say.

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> And I don't see .jeff saying they should be able to get
> away with this, [...]
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that's right.

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> [...] he is just saying that if AOL could do it, it'd be
> much worse than what Microsoft have done.
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absolutely.  what's worse -- a) a company that gobbles up other companies
that have either attractive or competing software and actually uses that
software in their future releases or b) a company that gobbles up other
companies and turns those companies and their product into a shambles?
there's no doubt the answer is "a".  "b" is just pure evil and of no use to
anybody but themselves.  if i had to choose between microsoft or aol being
the one that owned the os and the browser, i'd pick microsoft 100 times out
of 100.

the scary thing about aol and its looming power is they have *no* regard for
standards whatsoever.  people complain about microsoft, but they're far
better about standards than most of the critics give them credit for.

another thing is that aol is a media company -- microsoft is not.
microsoft's main focus since day 1 has been software development.  when it
comes to supporting products and pushing new releases, patches, upgrades,
whatever out the door, nobody knows more about that than microsoft.  the
same can't be said for aol.

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/