From "Unauthorized Windows 95(tm)"

by Andrew Schulman
IDG Books, 1994
ISBN 1-56884-305-4

page 3

If you are a software developer or entrepreneur, the brief answer is that Windows95 should make you nervous (unless you work for Microsoft, or have invested in Microsoft stock, or both).

page 6

As an interesting commentary on the need for competition in the operating systems market, Microsoft produced MS-DOS 5.0 largely because Digital Research's DR-DOS 5.0 had been released in August, 1990, and was doing quite well. [...] It is likely that, without competition from Digital Research, MS-DOS would have continued to stagnate (it had been years since the awful DOS 4.0 release).

page 11

Windows supports general-purpose non-Microsoft applications in the same way that a rope can be said to support someone who will soon be hanged. Your product may be a Microsoft DLL just waiting to happen.

page 19

First, the change from per-processor to per-copy licensing probably comes several years too late. Anne Bingaman acknowledges this: "I wish it were five years ago. I know it's late" (InfoWorld, August 15, 1994, p. 46).

page 19

After the signing of the consent decree, US Attorney General Janet Reno said, "Microsoft's unfair contracting practices have denied other US companies a fair chance to compete, deprived consumers of an effective choice among competing PC operating systems, and slowed innovation."

page 19

The Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Anne Bingaman, noted that "Microsoft is an American success story but there is no excuse for any company to try to cement its success through unlawful means, as Microsoft has done with its contracting practices."

"Microsoft has used its monopoly power, in effect, to levy a 'tax' on PC manufacturers who would otherwise like to offer an alternative system." said Bingaman. "As a result, the ability of rival operating systems to compete has been impeded, innovation has been slowed and consumer choices have been limited." According to a DOJ [Department of Justice] press release, Bingaman noted that Microsoft has maintained the price of its operating systems even while the price of other components has fallen dramatically, and that since 1988, Microsoft's share of the market has never dropped below 70 percent.

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