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Nothing like a bit of good fair competition to stimulate the industry
right.  What kind of competitive advantage would Microsoft have if
they knew what software people were running, which web pages they
were reading, and which utilities are most useful.  Of course, AOL
has been gathering this information since they put up their browser
(by acting as a "firewall" proxy).  Interesting how WAIS, Lycos, and
Yahoo suddenly went from 5 man shops to $15 million corporations.

How long before Microsoft does to NewsShare, First Virtual, or any of
the popular publications on this list what hit has done to Stacker,
Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Dbase, Corel.  Even Time/Warner, Knight-Ridder
and McGraw-Hill should be nervous.

All we have to do is wait for Windows95 to come out and make sure that
Linux gets NO PUBLICITY.  This will guarantee a future in which Microsoft
dominates 95% of every sector of the Information and Information Processing
market.  There are 60 Microsoft editors poised for the kill.

What does it feel like know you are about to be a tiger's lunch?

The alternative, which is how to assure a freely accesible press, that 
the opportunities represtented by internet connectivity are available to 
all, and to assure an open and competitive market-place, is to make sure
that every innovation in Open Systems platforms, and all of the GPL
and FDSC get significant coverage.

The 21st century could be incredibly vibrant, with incredible opportunity
for anyone who even has a friend who has a computer, to provide a worth-while
service or product, and get paid a competitive rate for it.

The alternative is that Microsoft, in it's fever to control every aspect
of the information age, will not only wipe out competition, but will wipe
out opportunity and cause a recession that would make the Great Depression
look like a minor economic slowdown.  Microsoft would collapse as well
because no one could pay them their monopolistic prices.

	Rex Ballard
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.



From rballard@cnj.digex.net Sun Jun 11 18:05:31 1995
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