Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 304: Microsoft is in a dilemma
Almost all of Microsoft's senior executives watched the AmigaOS launch conference with a confused expression on their faces.
The main reason was that Tommy Hawke's WinStar company launched AmigaOS exactly one week earlier than Microsoft's originally scheduled Windows 3.0 release on May 22.
And that bastard Tommy Hawke used an underhanded trick. He asked many small developers from Stanford University to report to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, claiming that Microsoft was trying to use benefits to lure competitors to develop software for other operating systems, thereby ensuring that it would not be involved in anti-competition investigations and antitrust investigations, thereby dominating the application software market share.
To put it simply, Microsoft uses funds through the industry alliance organization EFF to support several small companies that compete with it to develop application software for other operating systems, ensuring that they will not starve to death, but will not be able to grow stronger. Their existence just allows Microsoft to deal with the Federal Trade Commission's investigation and show the federal government that it does not monopolize the market or encourage monopoly, but instead uses money to support healthy competition in the industry.
But what made Microsoft very uncomfortable was that the other party stated that after Windows 3.0 was launched, it would have built-in word spreadsheet software such as Word for Windows, leaving users no chance to choose other software. This was very serious malicious competition for other word spreadsheet software development companies.
Therefore, the Federal Trade Commission is now waiting for Microsoft's press conference. If built-in Word and Excel software really appear at that time, the other party can naturally intervene in the investigation.
This is a very uncomfortable choice. If the built-in new Word and other software are removed in order to avoid investigation, it will inevitably have a significant impact on the sales of Windows 3.0, because this upgrade can be said to be for corporate users to work more conveniently and efficiently. After switching to a new system, neither buying new word processing software nor installing old software is convenient enough. The most convenient way is to directly integrate it.
However, if it is retained, it will be tantamount to giving the industry an opportunity to unite and attack itself, confirming malicious competition. Developers of word processing software and spreadsheet processing software will surely flock to the Federal Trade Commission and cause trouble for itself. Even if the committee's investigation can be settled with money in the end, what about those large and small companies that are chasing itself? Will they be willing to let go if there is no profit?
The worst thing is that Microsoft cannot even use the same reason to cause trouble for AmigaOS. Although AmigaOS has built-in OSS office software, what is built-in is the Home Edition which was announced to be permanently free many years ago. The Enterprise Edition with more professional functions still needs to be purchased separately. The problem of OSS was solved by Tommy long before AmigaOS was born. Strictly speaking, although the layout and operation of OSS Home Edition and Enterprise Edition are almost the same, they are already two software, and Microsoft cannot attack OSS from a legal perspective.
However, the Unix version, MAC version of Word and other software developed by Microsoft have always been paid commercial software. Now they are built into its own Windows system for free. Isn't this malicious destruction of the development of the industry?
But if Microsoft follows Tommy's example now, it is too late, or too early, because Microsoft's public relations and lobbying capabilities are not strong enough, at least it cannot dominate the computer industry. Tommy's AmigaOS is backed by Stanford University, the owner of Silicon Valley. The two parties have authorized each other a large number of computer-related patents and are dependent on each other. There is no need for a complete breakup.
Therefore, in the face of overwhelming news, Microsoft almost gritted its teeth and announced with a wry smile that the news that had been circulated before was untrue, that Microsoft would not use the bundling sales method of free built-in software to disrupt the healthy development of the industry, and welcomed the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into this matter.
I thought Tommy was coming up with some unconventional tricks and that AmigaOS must have some outstanding features, but after watching the press conference, all the people at Microsoft had a helpless look on their faces?
They took the initiative to attack Microsoft before the press conference, and the result was this?
Even if Tommy didn't ask someone to report it, Microsoft was not going to take AmigaOS seriously, because no corporate user would equip their company with such a garbage operating system.
Bill Gates gently pushed the frame of his glasses with his fingers and looked at his Harvard Fox Club brother, Steve Ballmer, the current vice president of Microsoft, who was sitting in the third seat on his right: "What do you and your department think of this operating system?"
"Honestly, I can't even stand up to show my respect for the operating system that Tommy Hawke and a few gaming geeks developed." Steve Ballmer said to Bill Gates in an affirmative tone with a disdainful smile on his face.
It's not that he is blindly arrogant. If he was really a blindly arrogant fool, he would not have been able to gain Bill's trust, let alone stand out in a university like Harvard where the intrigue is more cruel than that of the White House, and join the Fox Society in his freshman year, which only admits six undergraduate members each year.
In fact, long before the press conference, he had already experienced the old and new versions of AmigaOS many times. Even the elites in the Windows development and sales department that he was in charge of had already studied AmigaOS thoroughly.
"For the first time, everyone, including our sales staff, gave the same answer. Give me a reason to buy this game system with two built-in rubbish games? Is it a computer operating system? If people can accept that after opening an operating system, the interface has no interface manager, no program control panel, and they think they have learned computers by just clicking on the screen a few times, then it can indeed be considered a home game console, which cannot be recognized by real operators at all." Steve Ballmer said the evaluations he collected about AmigaOS:
"I think the operating systems we should worry more about are Arthur, XTS-400 in the UK, Communix in West Germany, Slit azGun in France, and even TRON in Japan. These European or Asian bastards bought the source code of Unix from AT&T and are now trying to make rules with what they bought."
The few words that came out of his mouth were all the code names of operating systems developed by those countries themselves. They are trying to promote them in their own computer markets with the help of economic subsidies from those countries to make it more difficult for Windows to invade. If those operating systems are allowed to continue to become popular, the final result may very well be that there will be a bunch of strange operating systems in the world, and then everyone will sit together to formulate some kind of interoperable industry standards, and it will no longer be possible to form a monopoly or unification of a single operating system. That would be an unacceptable situation for Microsoft and Bill Gates today.
Bill Gates stared at Steve Ballmer after he finished speaking. There was no emotion in his eyes behind the lenses, as if he was slow to react and didn't realize that the other person had finished speaking.
Steve Ballmer was not surprised by Bill Gates' reaction. He paused for a moment and continued:
"AmigaOS is a product made by piecing together half a game program and a MINIX variant. If you think you have never heard of MINIX, don't be surprised. It is a small Unix-like operating system. You can say it is a copy of Unix, but because it was only used for computer teaching before, it never appeared on the market. WinStar has no imagination of its own, and AmigaOS is of no help to the development of computer application software. People just think that the picture that woman described at the press conference is very tempting. In the Internet age, turning on the computer, opening the website to browse the news, communicating with others, and using e-mail to replace traditional mailboxes are even more popular. The message was delivered quickly. If a fool believed the woman's lies and bought AmigaOS and a computer home, he would know how much money he had to spend to connect to the Internet. In other words, how many public websites on this earth can be browsed by anyone without permission and account password verification? Twenty, thirty? Soon they found out that they were deceived. The Internet age will definitely come, but not now. Tommy Hawke tried to let the public skip the transition period that he thought was unnecessary and directly handed the finished product to them. This was not realistic unless a groundbreaking miracle appeared. Scientific development is rational and there are no unrealistic miracles. This is why I am sure that AmigaOS will fail. "
Bill Gates finally responded this time. He took off his glasses and blinked, then said, "The future that Tommy Hawke described to everyone is very moving. That's also the future I see. The future of computers should be like that. Open our operating software, sit in front of the computer, and overlook the whole world."
After his eyes felt more comfortable, he slowly put his glasses back on. "It's a pity that Tommy's ideas are a bit ahead of their time. The customer group he hopes to pay for his bills cannot afford the expensive peripherals for the time being, and the corporate users who can afford it are not interested in AmigaOS. For example, even if I put aside my position and simply choose from the perspective of a company leader, I can put an AmigaOS computer at home, but I will never let the company computer choose AmigaOS for office use. It's not because I prefer Windows, but everything that AmigaOS has shown so far is of no help to those large commercial companies in creating profits. In terms of professionalism, it is not competitive with us."
"That's what I'm saying, unless a groundbreaking miracle happens, such as the U.S. telecom service providers collectively lowering their prices to rock-bottom prices," Steve Ballmer said nearby.
Bill Gates slowly stood up and ended the small internal meeting: " So, next, our focus will still be on the UK and Japan. We will ensure that after our Windows 3.0 is launched, we will continue to expand our market share in these two countries. Regardless of the marketing costs, we will not give them the opportunity to use the messy operating systems in their own countries."
