Time to stop the Williamite revolution

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

William Gates III was for a few hours this week a poorer man. When the Wall Street Stock Exchange began trading last Monday the share price of Microsoft Corp., the company Gates founded, fell by over 8% of its value.

    
Some innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's self interest
The fall was the reaction to the decision by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that Microsoft was a monopolist whose actions had meant ``some innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's self interest''.

The case, brought by 20 U.S. states and the U.S. Justice Department, revolved around the use of web browsers. Start up any computer with a Microsoft operating system, that's 90% of all PCs, and on the screen are a number of icons. They include the Recycle Bin, the My Computer and My Documents icons and one titled Internet Explorer. This, according to the U.S. Justice Department, amounts to an unfair advertisement for a Microsoft product.

Microsoft had, it was claimed, deliberately constructed Windows 95, NT, 98 and Office 2000 in such a way as to favour Microsoft's internet software above any of its rivals. It was Microsoft's refusal to change this programming method that landed it in a U.S. court.

The power and growing influence of Microsoft, not only in the computer market but also in other communication technology sectors, is concentrating the minds of governments and regulators in Europe and the USA.

However, it is inaction that has allowed Microsoft to emerge as such a powerful company. Bill Gates has been allowed to build one of the world's largest companies. His personal wealth is estimated at over $100 billion and Microsoft is said to have a market value of $280 billion. Last August, it reported quarterly profits for April to June 1999 of $2.2 billion. This week, its AGM will no doubt unveil another spectacular financial performance.

The key to Microsoft's success is that most of us have never bought a Microsoft product. We buy computers that have the products pre-loaded. Most of us steal Microsoft products at one time or another but this is not a problem for Bill Gates as it merely increases the spread and influence of his company's products.

Now there are a range of products you buy that have a little bit of Bill in them, but again you often purchase these products without knowing that Bill is there lurking in the profit margin.

In Ireland, Bill is in Cablelink in the 26 Counties and Cabeltel in the Six Counties courtesy of his $1 billion investment in the company NTL. If you are a Newcastle United fan, Bill might also soon have a share in this club.

In the past years, Microsoft has invested $730 million in radio companies, $515 million in set top boxes for TVs, £10.5 billion in cable companies and a range of joint ventures on the Internet and multimedia business sectors.

Microsoft has reached a position where it will be literally everywhere. Bill Gates passes himself off as a lucky computer nerd. Why then does he need an empire? Yes, his company has created 1,500 jobs in the 26 Counties, but this is no price to pay for ceding him international control of the computer and communications industries. We have to stop the Williamite revolution now.

Where do you want to go today?


This article was written using Microsoft Word `97. The programme runs on a Toshiba laptop computer using Microsoft's Windows `95 operating system. When buying the computer, I asked the retailer was it possible to get a non-Microsoft operating system. No. Even though there are options such as the much cheaper Linux operating system, the retailer showed no knowledge of them.

My only choice other than computer type was whether I went with Windows `95 or Windows NT. The applications software - the programmes that actually do something like creating a spread sheet, using the paintbox, accessing the internet, even the solitaire, are Microsoft products.

I did have a computer using another Microsoft package called Windows for Workgroups or Windows 3.1. It worked well, though not as slickly as the Apple system used in An Phoblacht. I had to give up on 3.1 once Windows 95 and it successor `98 was launched, as moving Microsoft Word files from one computer to another, once something done with ease, now became more problematic. Word files lost their formatting as you moved from one system to another. Sometimes they would not print and often produced a stream of meaningless text and characters.

The second reason the old computer had to go was that even though I could load up Windows 95, it took forever and a day to get anything done.

The problem was the lack of hard disc space and my computer's processor, which is the accelerator of the computer. The faster your processor, the faster word files open and close, print etc.

So when Windows 95 was introduced, I found that my former trusty system was obsolete and nearly £2,000 later was ready to access the information superhighway again. This time, I thought in the fast lane.

If this computer was a car I would have more than justified AA membership at this stage. It is not that my computer doesn't work. On a good sunny day it is fast and sleek. On most other days it suffers from screen freezes, a weekly crash and when multiple files are open the inescapable message of ``warning there is not enough memory to open this application''.

I could have bought a Compaq computer, a Dell, a Packard Bell or even a Gateway and like thousands of others experienced the same problems. It is ironic that during the same time period from 1995 to 1999 Bill Gates has become the world's richest person.

Microsoft's corporate slogan asks ``Where do you want to go today?'' The answer is clearly only where Microsoft and their partners want you to go.