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The Cossacks
(derived from a word that means “free men”) were a group of cavalry
units organized by the Czars in Russia as military shock troops. They,
like all other military units of the times, were mainly used for
quelling unrest in the domestic population.
These troops were also known for exacting a heavy toll on those
that they subdued in rape, pillage and torture.
The
reason for this short history lesson is that I contend that our Industry
– call it Computers or Technology or Information Technology – has
been invaded by the new Cossacks, those who come not to develop it and
take it forward but to steal from it and subdue it to the will of their
masters. Does that sound
like I’m suggesting a new conspiracy theory? Far from it. Every growth
business attracts predators like these who view the new industry as a
way to make a quick buck and disappear before they get caught.
Technology
has always driven us forward at breakneck speed without regard to the
cultural or economic consequences. Airplanes and personal automobiles
made trains almost obsolete, computers restructured the world economy so
totally that we can’t imagine a way to do business without them.
As with any new technology, the casualty rate is immense and we
have all seen the carcasses of the big players along the way Digital
Equipment Corporation, RCA, General Electric, Datapoint - all gone but
not forgotten.
Our
industry has kicked up its own superstars – actual and self-proclaimed
- like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs (to name but a few) and
many wannabes climbed onto the bandwagon and tried to milk the new cash
cow. The analysts – always desperate for a new vehicle to push –
jumped on and pumped the “dot cons” for all they were worth.
The
biggest dot con, and the least commented upon, was America Online.
If Enron was shell game designed to create profits from thin air,
they weren’t doing anything that AOL hadn’t done for years.
AOL’s trick was to take the full cost of recruiting a new
subscriber (all those free CDs, the 1000 free hours, massive advertising
and all the other promotional gimmicks) and capitalize them as “goodwill”
on their books. Over the
years the SEC made them restate earnings a couple of times to reduce the
massive amount of debt being disguised by this technique but most of it
remained on their books until now.
Finally, Steve Case found a way to bury the debt, he found a
willing victim in Time-Warner, merged his company and now, the combined
corporation is taking the largest corporate write down in history $54
BILLION. The analysts spin
this as a good thing because it writes off the results of a bad merger
and gives the new AOL a fresh start.
A
fresh start to do what? AOL has been the prime motivator behind the
Department of Justice campaign against Microsoft.
They have recruited a bunch of malcontent competitors and a bunch
of ignorant State Attorneys General and kept up a refrain about
anti-competitive practices. Their line is that we – the consumers and
members of the IT community – need to be protected from the avaricious
grasp of Microsoft and its cohorts. That they are the defenders of “open”
technology and Microsoft is the purveyor of closed products designed to
lock us into their view of the future.
While
some aspects of this may be true, lets examine the history and see how
much. First, Bill Gates,
whatever else he is, is still one of us – someone who passionately has
pursued new technology without regard to what gets laid waste in the
process. He is still doing that – right or wrong.
If one examines the history of Microsoft products, it is clear
that we wouldn’t have ubiquitous Internet access without the inclusion
of Internet Explorer in Windows FOR FREE.
We wouldn’t have ubiquitous POP3/SMTP email if we had relied on
the AOL model.
Who
has promoted standards in the industry? AOL has the worst record for
adopting and using standards to this day. Oracle still delivers a
product that takes over any machine it runs on – share the server with
other functions is still foreign to them.
Apple innovates but maintains its air of superiority and only
vaguely and grudgingly adopts common standards with other machines.
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And
what price did we pay for these changes? Nothing – most of this was
thrown at us by Microsoft as a freebie – huge downloads but free
nevertheless. What
standards do the Cossacks support?
AOL maintains the largest computing environment which talks to
nothing else. They pay lip
service to open standards and yet, to this date, have refused to open
their applications to anyone else.
When
these new Cossacks attempt to tell us how much they care about us and
the forward march of technology, look under the spin and see what they
really mean:
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The CEO of Red Hat under cross
examination at the Microsoft hearing doesn’t even know who wrote
Linux;
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An AOL internal memo surfaces in
the same trial (where AOL is complaining that the .NET strategy is
designed to lock out competition) showing that AOL has a strategy called
“Magic Carpet” designed to compete with .NET and that AOL will deny
access to it for any web provider that allows .NET authentication;
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The new CEO of Novell complains
that Novell was beaten by “Microsoft giving away NT”.
So
what does that mean? If the
darling of the investment community – backed by, among others, AOL and
IBM – doesn’t even know where his base product came from, how much
does he know or care about the technology or the market?
Would
ANYONE care to present the view that AOL would like to give us all free
access to the new technology they claim is being held back by Microsoft
giving Internet Explorer away?
Does
anyone want to go back to the hey day of Novell’s dominance when it
cost $500 a seat to use a network?
Let
no one be deceived, these Cossacks aren’t acting in OUR interests just
theirs. Where are the
Congressional hearings on AOL’s shell game with profits?
Why hasn’t the Department of Justice indicted AOL for cooking
the books and probably shredding more documents than Enron, Andersen and
Congress combined?
Now
lets examine the Linux phenomenon.
Linus Torvalds is also one of us and I have nothing but respect
for his ambition and vision. Linux
is a worthy tool in a continuing battle between us Geeks/Techies/
promoters of tomorrow and the new Cossacks who want a more predictable
world (i.e. a way to guarantee that they can bleed our pocketbooks in a
predictable manner). These
Cossacks don’t give a hoot whether we can break through with
technology and build a world of free to develop; they only care how much
they can steal from us while telling us how much they care.
Even
Linux was stolen from us – who is actually making money from it? Linus
Torvalds? No – the likes of IBM who now have a Unix kernel they can
deliver a mainframe around without having to pay a license fee to Unix
International.
I
know I’m going to be accused of being an apologist for Microsoft, but
let me say this – Microsoft has done many things that were
anti-competitive, exclusionary and flat wrong.
They need to be sanctioned for it and I’m sure that the courts
will make sure they are. But don’t be misled, the anti Microsoft
faction are only really complaining about ONE thing – that they weren’t
able to make us dig deeper into our pockets to get what we have now.
They are more avaricious than Microsoft has ever been and, if
they get their way, it WILL cost us 3 times as much to do what we
can do now. Don’t fall for it.
As
for Microsoft, I hope the departure of the President marks a return to
its techie roots. The
Corporation has obviously been out of rational control for some time and
that is a direct function of Senior Management.
I issue a qualified “Welcome back Bill” if this means we see
a Microsoft aimed at leading us into new frontiers and not new ways of
fleecing us.
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