On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 10:36:54PM -0500, Doc wrote:
> In light of the rumors AOL floated re. acquiring RH this has some
> fascinating
> overtones. Perhaps they intend to do just what it is that they accuse M$ of
> fearing -- link Netscape with Linux and with some assistance from the courts
> go right at the heart of M$.
>
> Sure sounds good for Linux and fun to watch! :-)
>
> doc
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> AOL Time Warner Sues Microsoft Over Browser Issue
>
> Tuesday, January 22, 2002
>
> AOL Time Warner filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in federal
> court Tuesday, seeking damages for violations of antitrust law found in a
> landmark government case against the software giant.
>
<snip>
AOL/TW has now denied any attempt to purchase Red Hat, and Red Hat has
been silent. This came up on another list, and I forgot to save the
link. Sorry. However, current speculation is that they can simply
partner with Red Hat. Who knows?
But this latest lawsuit reminds me of vultures circling a carcass.
That's really not an attempt to downgrade Microsoft, but it's
interesting to me that 1) their revenue stream is not doing well,
comparatively; 2) XP hasn't set the world on fire (except for OEMs, who
really don't have much choice); 3) DOJ has sued and proven that MS
violated antitrust laws; 4) several state attorneys general are looking
for their own settlement; 5) EU is still trying to decide if and how to
punish MS; 6) Gartner has openly advocated going away from MS on the
server because of security problems; 7) Gates has made a big public
showing of putting MS coders and techs onto security issues; and 8) now
AOL-TW (a giant of a corporation and MS's public enemy number two or
three) is now suing them for monopolistic practices.
Microsoft's still got quite a bit of life left in it ($30B worth or so).
But it sure does look like they're surrounded by vultures or hyenas.
Paul
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