Republican Microsoft being outmaneuvered by Democratic

[alfredo]

Apple?

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060420.html

Native Speaker:
There May Be an End-run for Apple Around Windows After All
By Robert X. Cringely

Dave Winer, in his NerdTV interview several months back, said that he viewed his software developer job as giving customers whatever they want. It wasn't his job to say "no" to customers, but rather to say "yes," adding features and capabilities as needed to delight the people who were ultimately paying Dave's bills. It is an enlightened and unusual position to take, especially for an engineer, because engineers typically say something can't be done at all before they eventually say that doing it is trivial. Dave, who has plenty of ego in his own right, claims to have eliminated ego in his quest for customer delight. I hope he has. But even if Dave, himself, hasn't reached that level of Nirvana, he presents an interesting question of how best to give the customer what he or she says they want? In this, our third consecutive week of, "What the heck is Apple really doing with Windows?" we can try to ask this same question about Apple and see if there is an obvious answer emerging. I think there is.

snip!


Remember Steve Jobs' first days back at Apple in 1997 as Interim-CEO-for-Life? Trying to save the company, Steve got Bill Gates to invest $150 million in Apple and promise to keep Mac Office going for a few more years in exchange for a five-year patent cross-licensing agreement? The idea in everyone's mind, of course, was that Microsoft would grab lots of Apple technology, which they probably did, and it quite specifically ended an Apple patent infringement suit against Microsoft. But I'm told that the exchange wasn't totally one-way, that Apple, in turn, got some legal right to the Windows API.

[Selatius]

1. Is Bill Gates a Democrat or a Republican?

He seems so interested in helping schools. It doesn't seem typical of a Republican seeking to defund public education to divert to building more guns and bombs for the war.

[htuttle]

2. Most of his money goes to Republicans

Gates has profited mightily from his Republican connections and the contracts they've brought. As far as his personal politics, I have no idea. I really doubt he's a full-out wingnut. He really is a bit too smart for that.

But it's not about politics between Steve and Bill -- it's personal. They go WAY back...

[Taverner]

4. Gates is not a Dem or Repub

He never donated to anyone before the antitrust case, now he donates equally to both.

Gates is out for Gates, but I wouldn't call him a Repub.

[Selatius]

6. Oh, so he does buy Democratic politicians, too?

If I were him and a greedy bastard, I'd try and buy them all out regardless if they're Democrats or Republicans. No matter who wins, I win.

[Taverner]

8. Yep - pretty much his strategy

Of course equal blame goes for the bought-and-paid-for Dems...

[meegbear]

5. Yeah, but they do meet and talk ...

the past couple of WWDCs, Apple World Wide Developers Conference, Steve has said how he's had dinner with Bill and they hint around at what they're working on and what they think the other is doing.

[htuttle]

9. I've heard that too

I don't think they hate each other -- far from it. But I wonder how much their mutual competitiveness has driven technological advances over the last 30 years? It's certainly had a large effect on the personal computer platform.

[Ian David]

15. He also funds the Creationist wackos, too. n/t

[meegbear]

3. Gate's been pretty liberal, Jobs is more outspoken about being one

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Microsoft top execs went Bush 04.

Almost across the board. Since then Microsoft has played footsie with fundaloons as well. Gates' foundation does really good work, and it is sad to see them pander to the rightwing theocons, but that is what they have done for at least the last two years.

[acmavm]

10. Microsoft had little Ralphie Reed as an 'advisor' or something,

did they not? And they also were backing the some movement against GLTB people too, until this shit hit the fan. That doesn't sound liberal or democratic to me.

[alfredo]

16. You can thank the DoJ case for his interest in charity. You can

also thank his wife.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. I don't think that first part is true.

His wife certainly has made the Gates Foundation her mission in life, but I really doubt that the anittrust suits were a motivating factor in setting it up. The guy has more money that he can deal with and foundations like this are the best way to perpetuate your influence across time - they are a type of immortality. Carnegie, Rockefellar, Ford - Gates is certainly in that class of wealth and wants the same sort of perpetual influence.

[alfredo]

20. MS was taking some real PR hits. They were resorting to astroturf

in hope of blunting the damage being done by the case. That backfired.

I heard of no charitable giving before the DoJ case. I do remember Ted Turner challenging Gates and others to stop paying attention to where they stood on the Forbes list and more to the good they can do with their money. That was back when Turner gave $1 Billion to a UN charity. He put his money where his mouth is and urged other billionaires to do the same.

[alfredo]

11. There are strings attached to his gifts.

Long term contracts are attached to his gifts. Some schools have complained that the long term costs outweigh the benefits. Sometimes his gifts were contingent on the schools dumping competing software and hardware such as Apple computers.

[Selatius]

12. It seems everything is measured in dollars in his eyes, even schools

He sounds like the kind of person who puts personal greed ahead of the future of children.

[alfredo]

18. It wasn't just schools, charities to third world countries were

tied to the acceptance of Windows software as their official supplier of software. The Software Libre movement was in part a reaction to Gates.

An Australian charity was taking old hardware, fixing it and then handing it out to disadvantaged kids. MS came down on them hard, forcing them to pay for the software license for each machine.

I think his wife has been able to smooth out some of his rough edges. I think being married, raising children has been good for him. Maybe he doesn't have his identity so tightly associated with Microsoft. It appeared any competition was seen as a personal attack on him. Giving up control might have been the best thing for his sanity and the company.

[DUHandle]

13. Speaking of strings

Paul Allen owns the guitar that Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner on at Woodstock.

A true patriot.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/emp/allen.shtml

[mondo joe]

14. I don't regard MS as Republican. Capitalist to the Nth degree

yes, Republican no.

[alfredo]

19. He gave $5,000 to Ashcroft's 2000 race against Carnahan.

he lost to a dead man. But in the end it worked out for him. When Asscleft became AG he made that pesky DoJ case go away. The settlement terms were more generous that what MS asked for. fines were paid off in software (retail value, not cost). There were some other goodies in there that helped MS strengthen their grip on the market. I don't remember the details.

[Xenotime]

21. This is an interesting theory.

These two companies have always hated each other but would also work so closely. There's almost a symbotic relationship here.