This may have been before your time, but believe it or not, at one point (late '80s through the '90s) Microsoft was feared. A standard question VCs would ask new software startups was "what is your Redmond Strategy?" -- meaning "what will you do if/when Microsoft decides your market segment is interesting and decides to take it for themselves?"
because a MS monopoly is really really good.
I don't want a Microsoft monopoly to come back -- one of the most liberating things about the Internet as a platform is how it let you skip the need for a Redmond Strategy -- but it would be good for everyone who buys/uses tech to have Microsoft as a healthy competitor on a level playing field. More choices equals more competition equals more innovation.
What mojo..?
This may have been before your time, but believe it or not, at one point (late '80s through the '90s) Microsoft was feared. A standard question VCs would ask new software startups was "what is your Redmond Strategy?" -- meaning "what will you do if/when Microsoft decides your market segment is interesting and decides to take it for themselves?"
because a MS monopoly is really really good.
I don't want a Microsoft monopoly to come back -- one of the most liberating things about the Internet as a platform is how it let you skip the need for a Redmond Strategy -- but it would be good for everyone who buys/uses tech to have Microsoft as a healthy competitor on a level playing field. More choices equals more competition equals more innovation.