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On Mon, 12 Jun 1995, Bruce Campbell wrote:

> >Perhaps you don't see the connection.
> >Let me explain in a few words.
> >
> >Microsoft practices on MS Net will affect all those on this list.
> >You can be sure that MS practices on MS Net will be 1000 times more insidious
> >than MS practices in plain software simply because of the
> >amplifying power of the net - reaches more people, has much faster effect.

As early as Two years ago, I began showing publishers on this group how 
to set up WEB servers using LINUX, at a cost of under $2000, including 
several SCSI disk drives.  Several of those who took this advice are on 
the web, with their own servers and publishing feverishly.  Microsoft
is threatening to destroy the usefulness of all buth Windows NT servers 
with the release of Windows 95 (as commercial MSN servers).

Microsoft intends to gain an esclusive lock on the primary revenue
pools (Banks, Advertising, Subscriptions, user access...) in such a way 
that only On-line publishers approved by Microsoft will receive revenue
from Microsoft Windows-95 users.

> >In an NBC interview of Bill Gates
> >it definitely looked to me like the tough questions were being avoided or
> >glossed
> >over with Bill-speak and the whole thing was a quasi-infomercial for MS.
> >This was just a short time after the NBC-MS deal to create online content.
> 
> I am sure there are newslists devoted to mediawatch campaigns of all sorts.
> That is NOT what we want here, we are just simple folks working out our
> anxieties on how to report, edit, create and make a living online.

Microsoft has partnered with News Corp, NBC, and it's own lan vendor.  It
has also purchased the Lycos database.  Microsoft doesn't take second 
partners, and it reduces it's competitors to bankruptcy.  On-line vendors
had better wake up to the ugly fact that Microsoft doesn't want or need 
the "small vendor" on-line publishers.  If microsoft has it's way, there
will be ONLY ONE on-line publisher (Microsoft).

If on-line publishers do not consider their extermination to be a matter
of interest, I doubt they will find a better forum on the MSN.

> >Does the veracity of reporting about MS interest those on the list ?
> >Is there a connection between the NBC interview and previously raised questions
> >on this list about how MS Network will handle news reporting about Microsoft ?
> >YOU BET!!
> 
> You wanna bet? Let's have a vote. The question is not connections, the
> question is interest and relevance, of which this thread has little. If you
> wreck this list with your rants, it will be very sad for the rest of us who
> CARE about the topics discussed here.

Most of the publisher's on this net are on the web because a few
willing experts were willing to share information on the basis of the 
possibility of creating an "Opportunity Network" where we could all 
contribute and be compensated for it.  Out of those conversations,
over 25,000 Web servers serve over 1 trillion bytes/month to over 10
million users.  In April of 1993, this was NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  Most
of the members were going to try and publish "electronic mailing lists"
containing their entire publication in a proprietary format such as 
Microsoft word or PDF.  Now, web servers have access to a much wider 
audience and can automate generation of content, formatting, and
have developed the means to receive compensation for their work.

> >This isn't about a couple of MS bashers out to pollute the list.

> Actually, that's exactly what it is. Thank you for being concise. I guess
> I'm just too Canadian to be as rude as you.

Netin is one of those who took my suggestion and set up a server using 
Linux, and discovered that he was paying way too much for his Microsoft 
software.  I reccomended Linux, not because it was the greatest operating 
system ever developed, but because it was cheap (As little as $29/copy 
retail), relatively easy to set up (relative to other Unix systems), and 
provided full support of the Internet infrastructure standards.

How much did I make off this reccomendation - ZIP, NADA.  I'm more 
committed to the possibility of making the opportunities available 
through the internet available to any who are willing to spend a few 
hours to learn than I am to "Taking a king size cut of the whole internet".

As a result of my postings, more ISPs have come on-line, making the 
Internet available to over 60 million people (about twice the number 
actually connected.

> >This is about a few  well informed ( from experience and training )
> >individuals trying to inform this list which consists of people who influence
> >a lot of opinions.
> 
> Even if you have to say so yourself. Grafitti is Grafitti.

I have made over $1000/day as an internet consultant for some of the largest
companies in the world.  I have put Dow-Jones and Standard&Poor's on the 
internet.  In private E-Mail consultations I have helped put 20 other 
publications on-line.  I have spent over 4000 hours advising this group
and related groups via news-list contributions.  In effect, I have 
generated a conversation which is now worth $1 Billion/year and has 
barely touched the surface of what is possible.  Grafitti!

If you would like transcripts for historical purposes, e-mail me and I 
can send you a copy.

> >If you are already closed-minded about discussing these issues here, it
> >suggests that MS media saturation is so effective that even those in the
> >media beleive it.
> 
> Suggest you move your ravings over to alt.conspiracy along with the UFO
> people. I've obviously been too brainwashed to deal with.

Worse, you suffer from contempt prior to investigation.  You assume that 
because the empirer Bill says that if you can't see his clothes, you are 
a fool, that it must be true.  I tell you that the empirer has no clothes,
and even though you can see that I may be supporting your observations, 
you'd rather look good.

Bill Gates tried to sell us a Better Unix than Unix, and failed.  He sold 
the NT as a memory hungry workstation and it failed.  He tried to sell it 
as a server, and failed.  Now he wants us to try his "second best" 
inferior product - but he has planted a few suprises in his "trojan 
horse" which are designed to force the "Hot Sites" to convert to NT.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch, Linux became a better unix than unix just by 
letting companies who had been harmed by microsoft contribute.  Today,
many applications vendors will give you a complete SlackWare distribution 
along with their application suite, just to make sure you have a copy of 
their preferred operating system.  They don't have to pay for 
distribution rights, but they usually do, just because they want to see 
more of those quarterly upgrades (Slackware is up to 2.3 from 0.9)

If you want to become a full-blown WEB publisher, get yourself a copy of 
Linux and load it on your machine (you can keep a Dos partition and even 
boot Windows if you want to stop being a Web Publisher).  Then get the
HTTPD server from NCSA, along with the web Browser.  Spend a few hours
editing pages into HTML, go to quick-print and scan up a few Gifs or Jpegs
and be a publisher.

Total investment, not including PC Hardware - Under $200.  That would almost
pay for your Upgrade to Windows-NT.  Of course, with NT you will have to 
spend as much for the RAM as you spent for the rest of the PC.

The hard part is what every publisher does best.  Add content, as often 
as you like, as much as you like.

When you finally have so many customers you can't handle the traffic 
coming in from your T1 Span, let me know.  I'll tell you how to take the
lid off your throughput.

> http://www.interport.net/~caledon

	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 Tue Jun 27 17:38:25 1995
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