"Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox's store before I did and took the TV doesn't mean I can't go in later and steal the stereo." -- Bill Gates, Microsoft, 3/14/89--as quoted in MacWEEK, 1/9/90 p. 23
Apple has added Microsoft and Intel to a lawsuit it filed last December against San Francisco Canyon, a company Apple had contracted to develop QuickTime for Windows. Apple claims that thousands of lines of code developed for Apple's QuickTime turned up in a program Canyon designed for Intel to accelerate Microsoft's QuickTime competitor, Video for Windows 1.1d - code that Apple says Intel then provided to Microsoft for use in more than 20 Microsoft products.
One well known fact: Microsoft has invented essentially none of the fundamental technologies underlying the computing revolution -- quite a remarkable feat for company of its size, wealth and influence. But it is also notable how, as evidenced by the list below, many of Microsoft's flagship products were originally produced by outside sources, or are completely dependent on technologies invented by others. Another salient feature of this list is the number of times these acquisitions were colored with hostile overtones.
Really, then, the prevention of innovation actually involves controlling either the demand for innovations, or the supply of innovations, or both. Thus, Microsoft seeks to control what software consumers demand, and what software programmers produce.
Virtually all of their market leading techology (with the exception of Windows NT and possibly PowerPoint) has been either purchased or licenced from other companies. Microsoft is very good at taking someone else' ideas or core products and turning them into feature rich comercial consumer grade products and then marketing them very well. But is that innovation?
In a move that company detractors said is another sign of its infamous "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" strategy, Microsoft has used an open Internet security standard in its Windows 2000 operating system and made modifications without openly documenting its changes.
REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 28, 2000 -- Three years ago, Bill Bolosky and two Microsoft colleagues were brainstorming technology advances when an idea occurred to them -- why not save operating system disk space by storing duplicate files as links that point to a single file housed in a central location?
Microsoft must really believe it created the software industry. How else to account for the company's poor defense in the government's antitrust trial? What else would make Bill Gates insist that the breakup of the company will not happen --make him so certain that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's decision will be overturned?
"C# is Java by another name," said Steve Mills, general manager of IBM's software division. "Microsoft has its own unique programming model with Visual Basic. But it's not designed to be a scaleable, multi-user system like Java, and C# is the alternative to Java."
Although this might be a major strategy change for Microsoft, the concepts are hardly new. The idea of shifting computing tasks from the PC to the Internet has been around for years and numerous rival companies are already implementing pieces of this strategy. There is a growing number of "application service providers," or ASPs, that let you use the Internet to perform tasks that might otherwise have been performed on a personal computer.
Did you know that T.V Raman from IBM (previously Adobe) wrote the first complete voice-driven interface for a computer? It runs on Linux, and makes a joke of MS' "Accessibility" software.
It was supposed to have been the crucible where the elusive goal of interactive television would finally become a reality, introducing the Information Age to the American living room.But for all its promise, Microsoft's $425 million purchase of WebTV was anything but revolutionary. So unclear was the software company's direction that some speculate it bought WebTV simply to keep it out of the hands of the competition, a tactic alleged in markets ranging from Java to multimedia streaming.
Even outside the company, Microsoft's culture is cited as a key reason for the conspicuous lack of progress throughout the interactive TV industry. Former executives say the historical tension between the computer and TV industries was exacerbated by the company's perceived arrogance and cutthroat reputation in the three years since the WebTV purchase--an unexpected move that came as a seismic wake-up call to TV networks.
In what must be one of the most surreal stories we've ever covered, Microsoft has awarded a Linux devotee with one of the company's most coveted patents awards -even though the recipient has never worked for Microsoft.Softky himself devised a way of presenting this information to the user, and his patent is under consideration by the US Patent Office: one of several filed by Intrinsa. However Intrinsa was subsequently bought by Microsoft, with most of the development team moving to Redmond. But not Bill.
Now, Microsoft duly honours its patent-holders with an award, and the patent in this case fell into its lap with the purchase of Intrinsa. As ever, true to its word, Microsoft obliged by dispatching the gong - an inscribed cube to Softky.
"Practically on the eve of OS X's release, the shameless Microsoft thieves preview their new operating system XP. Gone are the Windows years; now it starts with 'X'. And their new features are ripoffs of iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, AirPort, etc."One detail in particular caught Minutaglio's eye and confirmed his suspicions. "They even stole the duck from Apple's OS 9 Multiple Users Control Panel!"
Tahoe notwithstanding, Microsoft has leaned less on its researchers than some companies. That may be why some Microsoft product developers take a dim view of the idea that such world-class researchers aren't directly at their beck and call, even referring behind their backs to time spent at Microsoft Research as "rest and vest." Some developers have coined a term for Microsoft Research's lofty ambitions and lack of total focus on improving the company's products: "Where the rubber meets the sky."
