I know this is old news

[pBS]

Windows APIs. MS have continued to provide documentation of APIs for as long as I can remember.

the problem there is, sure they provide api's, but only after years of screaming and much reluctance, and they themselves use undocumented API's all the time....Office being the main culprit there..

Don't even get me started when it comes to the anti-trust suit when MS embedded the capability for Windows to open files beginning 'http://' (Internet Explorer in its early days). You start with a DOS (generic acronym for disk operating system) then you provide a NOS (network operating system). So where's the difference to being allowed to provide the user the ability to open a file with a URI of 'C:\blah' but you're monopolising if they can open a file with a URI of 'http://blah'. As far as I remember, Netscape charged money for a Windows application that exploited the ability to access HTTP/HTML technologies - both of which are (and always were) open standards. They got upset when MS gave that away for free.

the issue there was, that they wouldn't let anyone ELSE have that http:// capability, breaking it for netscape users, thus gaining unfair advantage..[no ability to set diff. default browser for http: file assoc.]
also, you can't come into a market and severely undercut all competition's prices to put them out of business..then a big enough stash of cash could put anyone out of business..
plus i'm pretty sure they're cheating with IE also, using undocumented features only they know about..
and stealing everyone else's ideas..

I recently had a conversation with a guy that runs a business promoting open source software to companies (he hates MS with a passion). He's aiming to make 5 million before he retires and he possibly will. Does he care about open source - yeah, sure - because it's going to make him big money.

yea, and more power to him...MS sucks cuz they cheat with inside info, and it still doesn't work...at least with open source, it can be fixed...with MS, you're at their mercy forever...and they won't even promise anything..[forget testing it]
i don't mean to pick on your post, but i remember when they screwed IBM for the dos rights, and it hasn't gotten any better...
with these issues, you have to get at the actual details, cuz most reporters don't get the significance of this stuff..

HtV: exactly...the market's price for the goods they sell, is far below what MS charge...but with a 'captive audience', you can charge just about anything..

Same internal culture as Enron.... just smarter lawyers.

[Deusxmachina]

About the market being unbalanced: I think the profit of microsoft is ~25-30 % of the sales. If a company can make that kind of profit it shows that there is too little competition.

What's the profit % on Monster Cable?

[HtV]

What's the profit % on Monster Cable?

They don't rule the market like ms.

[pBS]

i wonder how many they've sold already? lol