Fun_People Archive
28 May
Even paranoids have enemies

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 28 May 98 02:00:07 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Even paranoids have enemies

X-Lib-of-Cong-ISSN: 1098-7649
Forwarded-by: Dan Weinreb <dlw@odi.com>

I think this proves that any "paranoia" Netscape and Sun may have about
Microsoft is justified.

The MSNBC page at:

   http://www.msnbc.com/news/166864.asp#BODY

contains excerpts from internal MS mail, memos, quotes etc. that are part
of the Justice Department filing -- they make for interesting reading.
There is some really damning stuff here.  Of course, not everything written
in any memo by any person is necessarily a concensus, or the policy of
Microsoft or Gates, but...

An internal Microsoft document says that the "strategic objective" was to
"kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market."

Similar comments were found in an e-mail written by Paul Maritz, group vice
president of the platforms and applications group, who wrote that Microsoft
must "blunt" Java's momentum and "reestablish ActiveX and non-Java
approaches . . . [to] protect our core asset Windows -- the thing we get
paid $'s for."

  Jeff Raikes, Microsoft's Group Vice President for North America sales,
  lamented the infiltration of competition from Netscape into what he
  colloquially referred to as Microsoft's "Windows Paradise" and warned:
  "The situation is threatening our operating systems and desktop
  applications share at a fundamental level." Mr. Raikes also declared:
  "Netscape pollution must be eradicated."

Kudos to MSNBC for publishing this stuff despite their very strong MS
connection.

	[The page at:

	http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980520.wcmswords.htm

	has some other interesting quotes from Microsoft internal memos,
	e.g:

		For instance, without identifying the author, the Justice
		Department filing quotes an internal Microsoft document as
		saying that the "strategic objective" was to "kill
		cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market."

		...

		And, allegedly from Windows product manager Christian
		Wildfeuer: "It seems clear that it will be very hard to
		increase browser market share on the merits of IE 4 alone.
		It will be more important to leverage the OS asset to make
		people use IE instead of Navigator."

	--- dm]

© 1998 Peter Langston