MS Miscreant Monopoly
The problem I see with Microsoft as a monopoly is that the consumer is hurt by it in small, irritating ways. For example, I have a tiny shareware program called BigFix that is unfortunately necessary precisely because Microsoft has has no viable competition for most of its existence. Bigfix tracks upgrades to major software suites like windows, Office, Symantec anti-virus and others, lets me know via a popup message that a patch is available, then facilitates the upload and installation of the patch.
It’s a nice service, especially since its free to home users (corporations need to pay for a licence for large-scale versions.) What I find irritating is the fact we need this at all. Windows has been a staple of the desktop since 1989 (or so.) All that time, the product remains broken despite all the years of "development" since. Reports I see of Windows Vista lends me to believe that the gaping security holes will not be addressed in the forthcoming version. Vista will be nothing more than a cosmetic upgrade to keep up with Mac OS X, as noted at PC Magazine:
It’s too early to see how Vista measures up against competitive operating systems, but a lot of the more visible features are familiar. Apple’s Mac OS X "Tiger" already has many 3D visual effects and a search interface, Spotlight. Unix has had usable limited-rights accounts for years.
Okay: Anti-virus software is a billion dollar industry. Some would argue that if Microsoft cleaned up its act, a good many people would be out of work. These same people would just use their talent on something else - that’s what technology is all about: innovation. Symantec, for one, could still reap a bundle on its suite of backup and recovery tools, or its pcAnywhere communications program. They’ll recover just fine, thank you.
The consumer, who has as little time for cleaning digital windows as he has for cleaning real ones, is inconvenienced by all the squeegee work needed to keep a safe and working computer functioning. It is a disservice to everyone, and it is irresponsible of the richest man in the nation to ignore the issue. To me, more than any other reason, that is why competition against monopolies should be encouraged.