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I'd Like a Windows Seat, Please

As I'm writing this column, all the Microsoft programs on three of the four computers networked on my desk are being automatically upgraded…all for free at www.microsoft.com for MS' product upgrades (under Help), using SyberGen's Sygate to share the ISDN line on my network. I have, perhaps, a dozen or more MS programs on each computer, and upgrades are released every few months. What could be easier than to launch a program that identifies what I have on each machine, informs me if a later version is available, gets all the upgrades at once, and installs them? The cost for this wonderful service is free.

Can any company which provides this service be bad for consumers?

I admit, I've relayed jokes about repairing cars by opening and closing windows. And that WIN95 was really Apple87. Yes, I have looked at the paper wealth of Bill Gates and wondered about financial incentives. But these barbs are in good humor about a company and a person who are different from us.

Microsoft did not invent object-oriented desktops—Xerox Parc did. As an early owner of a heavy and expensive Apple Lisa, I knew it was a big deal when it arrived. And Bill Gates did too. He grasped it quickly and put it on 90% of the machines we now use. He made one of the most dramatic and courageous business decisions I have seen in transforming his company in a complete dedication to the web about two years ago. A 180-degree turn for a company with 16,000 employees…the leader in its industry. And the industry has thrived under this leadership, growing at rates unable to be measured they are so fast. It can't be all bad.

Santa Fe Institute and others remind us that companies in technological fields are subject to the rules of increasing returns. Thus, if you do well, you do very well. It is difficult to nurture small market participants. Microsoft claims, correctly I believe, that its main competition comes from its old products, which customers do not have to upgrade, for cost or not, and from the potential of killer applications from garage operators.

MS is correct. The best browser is not IE or Netscape, both available for free, but Katiesoft Scroll which installs easily on the active desktop. The best voice recognition systems are Dragon and IBM—and both work fine with Windows. The best email system for me is CompuServe (with some poorly advertised plugins) not Hotmail, owned by MS. And so on through many applications. MS has lots to be worried about. MS bought a significant percentage of Apple to keep it alive. And it has bought interests in cable companies in the correct view that bandwidth is constraining web growth (business students recognize this strategy as complementarity).

Now the Department of Justice and 22 states are seeking to compare MS with Standard Oil and enjoin MS from shipping WIN98. They have it wrong. The barriers to entry in the computer field are different from control of the kerosene market, as IBM learned from its former dominance of mainframes. Now, legal expenses will be incurred by government and MS to fight a case that should never have been brought in the first place. The taxpayer and consumer, perhaps the same people, will be the losers.

What a waste! Meanwhile I'll gladly pay $100 for WIN98 even if it is a correction of WIN95 errors. After all, I've just finished the free automatic upgrade of my MS programs while writing this column. And both are just ending.

Dean LeBaron
May 29, 1998

email <deanlebaron@compuserve.com>

website <http://www.deanlebaron.com>