Chapter 308 Microsoft is dumbfounded
All Microsoft executives watched the AmigaOS conference with dumbfounded expressions on their faces almost the entire time.
The main reason is that the launch date of AmigaOS by Tommy Hawke's WinStar company is just one week ahead of Microsoft's scheduled Windows 3.0 launch conference on May 22.
And Tommy Hawke, the bastard, used an off-the-books trick. He asked many small developers from Stanford University to report to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, claiming that Microsoft was trying to use profits to lure competitors to develop software for other operating systems, thereby ensuring that it would not It is easy to get caught up in anti-competition investigations and anti-monopoly investigations, thereby dominating the application software market share.
To put it simply, Microsoft uses EFF, an industry alliance organization, to use funds to support several small companies that compete with itself to develop application software for other operating systems, ensuring that they will not starve to death, but they will not be able to grow. Their existence is just enough to Let Microsoft deal with the Federal Trade Commission's investigation and show the federal government that it does not monopolize the market or encourage monopoly, but instead uses money to support healthy competition in the industry.
But one thing that makes Microsoft very uncomfortable in the report is that the other party said that after Windows 3.0 is launched, it will have built-in word table processing software such as Word for Windows, and will not give users the opportunity to choose other software. This is a problem for other word table processing software development companies. Very serious malicious competition.
Therefore, the Federal Trade Investigation Commission is waiting to see Microsoft's press conference. If built-in Word and Excel software really appear by then, the other party will naturally intervene in the investigation.
This is a very uncomfortable choice. If you remove the built-in new Word and other software to avoid investigations, it will inevitably greatly affect the sales of Windows 3.0, because this upgrade can be said to be more convenient and efficient for business users. After installing a new system, it is not convenient to buy a new word spreadsheet processing software or install an old version of the software. The most convenient way is to build it directly.
But if it is retained, it will give the industry an opportunity to unite to attack itself, and it will establish malicious competition. Developers of word processing software and spreadsheet processing software will definitely swarm after the Federal Trade Investigation Commission to find their own. Trouble, even if the committee's investigation can finally be settled with money, what about the big and small companies that are chasing us? If there is no money and water, will they be willing to let go?
The worst part is that Microsoft can’t even use the same reason to trouble AmigaOS. Although AmigaOS has built-in OSS office software, it has a home version that was announced to be permanently free many years ago. The enterprise version with more professional functions is still It needs to be purchased separately. The problem of OSS was solved by Tommy long before AmigaOS was born. Strictly speaking, although there is almost no difference in layout operation between OSS Home Edition and Enterprise Edition, they are already two softwares and cannot be combined at all. Microsoft is attacking OSS from a legal perspective.
The Unix version, MAC version of Word and other software developed by Microsoft have always been paid commercial software. Now they are built-in for free on their own Windows systems. Isn't it maliciously damaging the development of the industry?
But if Microsoft follows Tommy now, it will be too late, or too early, because Microsoft's current public relations lobbying ability is not strong enough, at least it cannot dominate the computer industry, and Tommy's AmigaOS is backed by Silicon Valley. Stanford University, the owner, and the two parties license a large number of computer-related patents to each other and depend on each other, so there is no need for a complete break.
Therefore, in the face of overwhelming news, Microsoft almost gritted its teeth and announced with a forced smile that the news previously spread was untrue. Microsoft will not use the bundling method of free built-in software to undermine the healthy development of the industry. The Federal Trade Commission is welcome to investigate this. .
I thought that Tommy had made an unexpected move and that AmigaOS must have something special about it, but after watching the press conference, everyone at Microsoft had expressions of dumbfounding on their faces?
Even if Tommy doesn’t report it, Microsoft is not prepared to take a serious look at AmigaOS, because no enterprise user will equip their company with such a garbage operating system.
Bill Gates gently pushed the glasses frame on the bridge of his nose with his finger, and looked at the Harvard Fox Club brother sitting in the third seat to his right, current Vice President of Microsoft Steve Ballmer: "You and What does your department think of this operating system?”
"To be honest, Tommy Hawke asked a few game nerds to develop this operating system. I want to show my respect by being a little tough, but I can't do it." Steve Ballmer said with a look of disdain on his face. Laughing, he said to Bill Gates in a positive tone. This is not because he is blindly arrogant. If he was really a blindly arrogant fool, he would not be able to gain Bill's trust, nor would he stand out in a university like Harvard, where the intrigues are more cruel than the White House. He joined as a freshman and only recruits students every year. Fox Club of six undergraduate members.
In fact, he had already experienced old and new versions of AmigaOS many times before the press conference. Even the elites in the Windows development and sales department he was responsible for had already studied AmigaOS clearly.
"Everyone, including our sales staff, their answers were so unanimous for the first time. Give me a reason to buy this game system with two garbage games built in? Is that a computer operating system? If everyone can accept it, The interface after opening an operating system has no interface manager, no program control panel, just a few clicks on the screen, and if they feel that they have learned the computer, then it can indeed be considered. This thing is just a home game console, and it cannot be used by real people at all. Yes." Steve Ballmer shared the comments he collected about AmigaOS:
"I think the British Arthur, XTS-400, West Germany's Communix, France's SlitazGun and even Japan's TRON, these operating systems are what we need to worry about more. These European or Asian **** bought them from AT&T. The source code of Unix is now trying to make rules with something that was bought."
The few words that came out of his mouth were all code names of operating systems developed by those countries. They were trying to rely on the economic subsidies of those countries to promote them in their own computer markets and make Windows intrusion more difficult. If those operations were allowed to As the system continues to spread, it is likely that the final result will be a bunch of weird operating systems in the world, and then everyone will sit together to formulate some kind of interoperable industry standards. It will no longer be possible to form a monopoly or unification of a single operating system. For Microsoft and Bill Gates, this is an unacceptable situation.
Bill Gates looked steadily at Steve Ballmer after he finished speaking. His eyes behind the lenses showed no emotion at all, as if he was slow to react and didn't realize that the other person had finished speaking.
Steve Ballmer was not surprised by Bill Gates’ reaction. He paused for a moment and continued:
"AmigaOS, this thing is a product that is made up of half a game console program and a MINIX variant. If you think you have never heard of MINIX, don't be surprised. It is a small Unix-like operating system. , you can say that it is a product of plagiarizing Unix, but because it has only been used for computer teaching before, it has not appeared on the market at all. WinStar has no imagination of its own, and AmigaOS does not help the development of computer application software. People just think that the picture painted by the woman at the press conference is very tempting. In the Internet age, turn on the computer and open the website to browse news, communicate with others, and use email to replace traditional mailboxes to deliver news more quickly. If a fool believes it That woman's nonsense, after buying AmigaOS and the computer home, she will know how much additional money he needs to spend to connect to the Internet. In other words, there is no need for permission and account and password verification on this earth, and anyone can browse the public How many websites were there? Twenty, thirty? Soon they discovered that they had been deceived. The Internet era will definitely come, but not now. Tommy Hawke tried to let the public skip those transitions that he felt were unnecessary. It is unrealistic to eagerly hand over the finished product to them, unless an epoch-making miracle occurs. Scientific development is rational and there are no unrealistic miracles. This is why I am certain that AmigaOS will fail."
Bill Gates finally reacted this time. He took off his glasses and blinked, and then said: "The future that Tommy Hawke described to everyone is very moving. That is also the future that I see. The future of computers is It's time to open up our operating software, sit in front of the computer and look out at the world."
After his eyes felt much more comfortable, he slowly put his glasses back on: "It's a pity that Tommy's idea is a bit ahead of his time. He hopes that the customer base who pays his bills will not be able to afford the expensive peripheral expenses for the time being, but can afford to pay." Enterprise users are not interested in AmigaOS. For example, I, even if I put aside my position and choose purely from the perspective of a company leader, I can put an AmigaOS computer at home, but I will never let the company computer I choose AmigaOS when working at work, not because I prefer Windows, but because everything AmigaOS currently displays does not help those large commercial companies to create profits, and it is not competitive with us in terms of professionalism."
“That’s what I’m saying, unless there is an epoch-making miracle, such as allowing these telecom service providers in the United States to collectively lower their prices to cabbage prices.” Steve Ballmer said next to him.
Bill Gates slowly stood up and ended the small internal meeting: "So, next, our focus is still on the UK and Japan, ensuring that after our Windows 3.0 is launched, we will continue to expand the market in these two countries. share, regardless of marketing costs, and don’t give them the opportunity to use their own country’s messy operating systems.”
(End of this chapter)