Re:Why Microsoft really patched XP
by WettowelReactor on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @01:05PM
(#7705699)
While the monopoly control provided a simplified avenue for distribution the free price tag alone cannot be held to blame. By that analogy any free, open source product can push its way into a new market and kill the paid for competition which is clearly not the case.
Re:Why Microsoft really patched XP
by twistedpair on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @01:05PM
(#7705695)
I was jesting. ;) I happily bought several copies back then, which was a lot on an allowance for mowing grass, but FREE was very hard to beat. Of course there was a little Anti-Trust case that came out of those dealings.
It didn't kill Netscape to charge per copy, that's how software works. People need to earn money for their work creating software.
What killed Netscape was Microsoft taking advantage of its monopoly by pushing itself into a new market with free software. Microsoft didn't need to earn money directly from the browser, so they could afford to give it away for free and take a loss.