From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9b30240b5a381bbf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-08-26 06:40:17 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: dennison@telepath.com (Ted Dennison) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Software Economics was RE: Ada 95 for an ARM-based bare board? Date: 26 Aug 2002 06:40:17 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <4519e058.0208260540.6cd7b78d@posting.google.com> References: <5ee5b646.0208231805.7f456d4d@posting.google.com> <5ee5b646.0208241353.5f69b4bf@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.115.221.98 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1030369217 31065 127.0.0.1 (26 Aug 2002 13:40:17 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 26 Aug 2002 13:40:17 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:28411 Date: 2002-08-26T13:40:17+00:00 List-Id: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) wrote in message news:<5ee5b646.0208241353.5f69b4bf@posting.google.com>... > If Microsoft had been giving away a limited version of IE free with > the intention of stimulating sales for the non-free $$ version from > which they > could make lots of money, that's a totally different manner. Free I have seen it argued that they were doing something close to that: substitute "web server" for "version" above, and you have it. That's certianly what Netscape was doing (the browser was downloadable and licensed for free for non-commercial use). However, I don't think that's accurate either. In the view of the courts at least, Microsoft gave away the browser to take market share from 3rd parties (like Netscape), so they could neutralize the threat posed to their platform monopoly by web browsers. It wasn't giving it away for free ($$$) that did the trick either. Again, Netscape also was licensed to home users at no cost, and was doing OK for years against Explorer. It was the various strong-arm tactics employed by Microsoft leveraging against their monopoly (eg: integrating it and distributing it with the OS, pressuring PC makers to not distribute the competition, etc.), that made the difference.