Steve Ballmer Makes His Case in Newsweek
from the talking-down-to-people dept
So, last week Bill Gates was given the opportunity to argue against the Microsoft breakup in Time, and this week Steve Ballmer gets to do the same in Newsweek. It must be nice to have PR people who can get you access to such big magazines. While Ballmer's explanation of why we shouldn't breakup Microsoft isn't as laughable as Gates', you still get the feeling that they really think the public is stupid. In both articles, they talk down to the public and make wild generalizations that they don't support. I'm not sure that Microsoft should or should not be broken up, but I do think someone ought to let Gates and Ballmer know that this is serious, becaues it doesn't seem like they're taking it that way.
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re: steve ballmer makes his case?
Can this be true? The brand new CEO of Microsoft doing nothing but repeating the same excuse and defense of Microsoft that has been carefully handed to the media through very talented pr work? How can Steve claim the defense of protecting innovation, when he himself can't even "innovate" and original response? How come Ballmer doesn't defend any of the actions Microsoft had taken in the past that landed them in the hot water they are now? Everyone who is even remotely affiliated with the name "Microsoft" has alrady stood on the soap box and said they were acting within the law, and did not do anything illegal. If that's true, why not discuss each of the business practices in question (from netscape to intel..i dont know where to begin with examples on this topic) and carefully explain why what they did is not illegal? True the courts have already ruled they used their Monopoly powers illegally, but is it not that very ruling Microsoft disagrees with? Why does microsoft continually claim their right to innovate will be destroyed? What about the rights of Netscape to innova...oh wait, netscape doesn't exist anymore...
Or am i largely mistaken? Perhaps Microsoft should be the only company in the us to be allowed to innovate. The Microsoftian innovation defense holds water, but short of being labeled hypocritical, why are the seeking to protect their ability to innovate, when they have destroyed that ability in other companies? I pose a lot of questions here, mostly to point out that Microsoft is doing nothing but coating the ugliness of their actions with a thin layer of sugar, and hoping that the public doesn't pause to long to look or taste it.
I hope the downfall of Microsoft spawns the birth of a thousand companies, because it would be nice for once, to walk into a computer store and actually have to spend time examining different company's software, and make a descion of which one is best for me.
respectfully,
Peng
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