Re: Word '97 vs. Frame 5.1.1

[Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM>]

On Mon, 31 Mar 1997 13:07:07 -0600, Wing, Michael J wrote:

>>Sounds like Adobe is starting to realize how hard it is to hit a moving
>>target (MS's Word save-format-du-jour).  Kinda like other browsers
>>tryingto keep up with NS's and MS's competing, made-up HTML tags.  Or
>>like IBM trying to keep up with Win32s support in OS/2: make it work,
>>and MS will "update" it within a few days so it doesn't.
>
>And it sounds to me like good old American competition.  My guess is
>that MS does these things to create or maintain an advantage.  Last I
>knew, most companies aim to do this.  If I was the leader and everyone
>was aiming at me, shouldn't I become a moving target?  Can a company be
>blamed for trying to keep it's advantage?  If MS was chasing Adobe, are
>there any indications that Adobe would not create a moving target?

The difference here is, MS also controls the operating system upon
which these other vendors' products depend.  They've already had their
wrists slapped by the DOJ for using hidden, undocumented hooks in
Windows to give their own software advantages over competing vendors.
Indications are that they're still doing it anyway.  This goes beyond
"fair" competition.

>Why should MS release their file format to others?  Aren't the others
>competitors?  Isn't that like asking for the other team's playbook?

And who do they think they're hurting?  Adobe?  Wrong.  As evidenced
right here, it's the end user who is harmed by these kinds of actions
(right, Suzanne?).  The same holds true of the NS/IE battle: they're
destroying the very foundation that their existance was built upon;
namely, a common HTML *standard* that allowed anyone on almost any
platform to access any web page.  The Web as we know it would never
have existed if it wasn't adherence to these standards in the first
place.  Now, in trying to create their own "competitive advantages", MS
and NS are segmenting the whole thing and we'll be back where we
started.




 Your friend and mine,
 Matt
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