The History of MicroSoft

i put this together about a year ago when Microsoft was attempting to buy Yahoo...

It was, originally, In it's short form;
A parody of Niemöller's observations concerning Nazi's & Jews...

But as i added more & more to it,
It doesn't really resemble that at all anymore...

Also: This was pulled straight out of my Rant Folder,
So it even includes my list of fun characters that i put on the bottom of each TextEdit document, So that if i need a fun character,
It's much easier to find and pull back up into the body of the document...
i just thought i would leave it there, as you really should copy it,
And put it somewhere for easy access and use for your own rants...!

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Various Arguments Against MicroSoft
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Contents:

· · · Parody of Niemöller's quibble aimed at Germany's Fascists.
· · · · · · Plus Postscript : Responsible Wealth
· · · What is Wrong with The World
· · · Bill Gates : Most Evil Person Ever?
· · · The Promise of Industrialization
· · · Cheating
· · · Regarding Netscape
· · · Monopolies
· · · Apples Failure
· · · Inappropriate Pictures Posted to Group
· · · What Happened to The Hysteria?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Niemöller's Ghost
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This was originally supposed to be a collection of short & pithy quatrains...
But some of these arguments are a little more subtle,
And require a longer elaboration on them.
. . . . . . . . . .

With Apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller
( but i hope he understands a little bit... )

In 1976 Bill Gates bemoaned that he was already too late
To dominate the software industry,
And that hobbyists were stealing his Early BASIC software,
Which is widely alleged to have been stolen itself...
And no one spoke out because few understood what a computer was.

And then MicroSoft invented a new marketing strategy called Vaporware,
And anyone that knew what this meant; Were incensed,
But were also secretly bemused by it's audacity.

Then; When MicroSoft latched onto the IBM Clone Wave with MS-D0S,
We thought that someone was finally sticking it to The Man.
Boy-- Were we wrong.

And when MicroSoft first derided The Apple's Macintosh Interface as Childish,
Then Blatantly Stole it Verbatim...
We thought; Well-- Apple stole the idea from Xerox's Alto...

Then MicroSoft got caught having stolen all the code for Internet Explorer,
And rather than pay The True Programmers for all the copies they were selling,
They began giving away for Free,
Flooding the Market & Contributing to Netscape's demise...
And everyone thought;
This is The Socialist Community Activism that The Computer Industry needs...

Then MicroSoft corrupted The Open Source Internet Language Java,
But nearly everyone used MicroSoft's Windows & Explorer;
So what did it matter?

Likewise; MicroSoft has consistently created it's Internet Utilities,
And Peripheral Software to Actively Exclude All Operating Platforms
Other than their own; Apparently in an effort to trick people into thinking that
These Other Platforms ( Macintosh / Linux / et. al. ) are Inferiour in some way...
Sadly; This Strategy has been awfully effective.

And after MicroSoft began gobbling up company after company
And became what The US Justice Department called an Abusive Monopoly,
And tried to stop it with The Sherman Act...
And MicroSoft managed to Weasel Out of any substantive penalties...
We neglected to notice because the whole affair took so long that we lost interest in it.

From time to time;
MicroSoft would introduce a Feature that it claimed was Revolutionary;
But has, In Fact, Been in Wide Use;
Usually by the Macintosh Platform, for Several Years.
Sadly; Many people would become excited anyways;
To The Great & Unbearable Chagrin of Most Smart Hamsters & Talking Parakeets.

And isn't it extremely interesting that whenever Bill Gates,
( along with most every politician & criminals in general )
Says something like; 'Our Monopoly is Giving Consumers Greater Choices'
Or; 'We Invented Open Source & are doing more than anyone to develop it.'
The Damp Masses just accept these statements at their Face Value,
Even though they're exactly-- Exactly the Opposite of What is True. ( ? )

After years & years of Incredibly Lame Software,
And Security Breaches that threatened our safety & economy,
We said; 'Ho hum, What else is new?'

And after every newly discovered Security Flaw,
MicroSoft would have a fix available within minutes...
Suggesting that maybe it Wasn't a glitch at all,
But a BackDoor that MicroSoft had written into the code for their own use...
But Many people thought--
'Gee, they sure are fast programmers over there in Redmond.'

And Isn't that where they grow all those pretty trees?

And MicroSoft became aware that it's Reputation was Mud--
And Ostensibly began to Reform its Appearance, If not it's substance.
While Microsoft rarely advertises on Television &/or The Radio,
You may Frequently hear that The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is Supporting NPR,
Or is Dedicated to bringing Innovations in Health & Learning to The Global Community.
But Curiously as a result of These Magnanimous Donations;
NPR has stopped reporting any News Items that are Critical of MicroSoft,
And It may well be that All Their Money Pouring into Africa
Is just a Modern Form of Western Imperialism.
Plus;
It is Intriguing that They have chosen Africa, Where Money just disappears.
Is it really going to the Organizations that it's Supposed to,
Or is it being Funneled back to Redmond?
Is Africa getting any Better since they Started Helping There?
Has Their AIDs Epidemic been Diminished?
Are they Entering the 21st Century with The West
Or Should we even be there;
Destroying their Indigenous Cultures & Supplying Weapons to Political Factions
That 'Today', Seem to Agree with Our Government's Tenuous Agendas...?
All this is too subtle for most minds preoccupied with Danny Lynn
Or Britney's latest Meltdown,
If they recall anything at all;
It's that Bill & Melinda are Helping Poor Black Children...
Somehow or another...

Then MicroSoft formed an Alliance with NBC,
So that they could more directly influence & manipulate
The root sources of information to the public,
And We thought; 'There sure are an awful lot of ads on this website...'

And then; They came after Yahoo.
But nobody really liked Yahoo anyway.

But Yahoo owns Flickr.
The last uncorrupted social networking internet site
That is really fun & functional to use.

But it was too late to stop them.

- - - - - - - -

Postscript : Responsible Wealth

This has become so muddled that rather than try to insert this next thought into the body of the above rant; i'll just supplement it here:

One of the principle reasons that i really hate BG/MS is that they have accumulated
This Stupendously Gigantic Amount of Wealth,
And they have Comically; As a Satirical Parody of Scrooge McDuck or Jack Benny--
Taken all that money & Squirreled it away in a vault somewhere.

To be fair perhaps;
There are very few Millionaires or Billionaires that Have taken their wealth
& done anything stupendously interesting with it.

The Smithsonian Institution was founded with a scant 9 Million ( 2005$ ) Dollars,
By Henry James Hungerford, The Nephew of James Smithsonian.
Andrew Carnegie bequeathed his money to build over 2500 Libraries world-wide,
Many of which feature his name; Predominately.
Henry & Edsel Ford were founders of The Ford Foundation.
While Henry himself may have been a fascist, His Foundation is apparently still doing
Some good in the world, Funding Starving Artists & Sesame Street.
Johns Hopkins Frittered Away his Pile of Lucre on The Johns Hopkins University
& The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Howard Hughes apparently distributed his Single Billion to Medical Research
John D. Rockefeller Blew his Benefaction on The Rockefeller Foundation
& Rockefeller University.

i suppose that many of these Swanky Wine Sniffers believed that by setting up
A Foundation, Endowment or Charitable Body,
Their Wealth might go on helping others for many years to come...
But These Philanthropies, Seeded by their Originator, Ended up being funded by
The Bourgeoisie; While they retained the name of The Founder.
A Wonderful & Elegant Little Scam to allow The Poor To Carry On
The Legacy of The Rich.

But Still; What i would really like to see;
Is Their Trinkets of Gold & Silver Being Used to Construct Something Magnificent
That Only a Concentrated Accrual of Prosperity;
Controlled & Administered by a Single Narcissistic Pillar of Tenacious Volition,
Could Wangle.

Such projects; As The Eiffel Tower, The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Taj Mahal,
The Great Wall of China, The Moai of Easter Island,
The Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro or Mount Rushmore...
Could not have been built as Public Works, Under The Supervision of Committees,
But only by the Hand of A Single Lunatic with an Inexhaustible Fountain of Mammon
Sitting in The Town Square of El Dorado.

Bill Gates has this Resource.
And he is Diddling it away.

That is inexcusable.

-----------------------------------------:: o

Something is Wrong with The World
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

i've often wondered; in a world full of psychopaths, why is it that the worse that BG has ever been the butt end of; Is a pie in the face...???

That just seems to defy Logic and Cause & Effect.

Children are killed every week for giving someone a funny look, or wearing the wrong shoes... But MS/BG has made Tens of Thousands of Enemies and Destroyed the lives of Thousands more.
Their products frustrate and bedevil Millions of people every day,
Their Security lapses have caused the endangerment of Businesses & Air Traffic.
Their Office Management Style has caused thousands of brilliant minds to be wasted...
And yet;
A Pie in the Face.

Something is very wrong with the world.

-----------------------------------------:: o

Bill Gates : Most Evil Person Ever?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

i've often thought that if you were to somehow quantify human suffering in such a way that you could come up with a consistent measurement of several different kinds of suffering...
Then you could compare that suffering of one kind, to another...?

If this could be done;
Then maybe it would be Educational to compare the amount of suffering that the people of Iraq have endured under Saddam H-,
Or All the suffering of the Jews, Gypsies & SlopeHeaded Retards during WWII...
Or The amount of pain that Stray Cats, Homeless Mothers & Misplaced Socks must bear each day...

And compare those Values to The Amount of Suffering the MicroSoft Products have caused The Billions of people that must use them;
Day after day, Year after year,
For the last 20+ years, How would they Balance...?

While being thrown into a gas chamber would be horrifying,
And waiting to be thrown into a gas chamber would be even more horrifying,
And Waiting for Years & years to Be Electrocuted,
May well exceed the suffering that any simple Murder would Accrue,
Even if you were Add the Suffering of Peripheral Victims,
Unless the Primary Murdered Recipient were Very Famous.

But These Amounts of Sorrow & Adversity are Compacted into a Comparatively Short Amount of Time...

While The Suffering that MicroSoft has caused The World has been accumulating in Spoonfuls; Over a much longer period of time...

That Acquired--
Total Magnitude of Psychological Misery & Persistent Tribulation;
To This Day;
Has By Far Surpassed nearly any other Category of Suffering that one may wish to compare it to.

Consequently;
Is Bill Gates / MicroSoft The Most Evil Entity in The World?
The Most Evil Entity that The World has Ever Known?

Yes.
i think so.

-----------------------------------------:: o

The Promise of Industrialization
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Great Promise of The Industrial Revolution was that it was supposed to bring about greater diversity. Mass production centers could be set up all over the country, or the world, and ship unique & high quality products all over the world.
But things don't seem to have that diversity.
Most everything seems to closely adhere to very specific design protocols set in stone by a few multi-international corporations that don't want to compete with real diversity.

Flickr is a little different from just about everything else on the internet.
It would be a shame if it became like everything else.
Tepid & Overworked.
Gaudy & Tawdry.

And those fun little error messages; would they go away?

-----------------------------------------:: o

Is Cheating Bad?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Are you suggesting that it's alright to spread rumors that you're on the verge of distributing a fantastic new software product, so that consumers won't buy your competitions products, even though you're not even working on a new product?

Are you suggesting that it's alright to distribute a browser for free, flooding the market, just to create saturation & dominance, so that you can then corrupt and change a previously public source internet language so that people can, Then, only use your browser to surf the internet?

Are you suggesting that it's alright to fill your spaghetti-ware operating system with hundreds, if not thousands of backdoors that you can use to secretly spy on peoples computers with, and then whenever one is discovered you immediately release a 'fix' for this software bug that you're oh so sorry about...?

Are you suggesting that it alright to buy up and crush companies that make competing products, so that the end user and their children can never have a choice as to which software products they can buy, that they will be forced forever after to buy extremely lame software from a company that has created de-facto standards that make them incompatible with anyone else's products that do try to enter the market?

Cheating is fine.
You can become incredibly wealthy by cheating.

-----------------------------------------:: o

Concerning Netscape
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Concerning Netscape;
i seem to recall that during the early Browser Wars,
Netscape was originally trying to actually sell it's Browser,

Then M$ was caught having stolen most of the code for it's Explorer,
And was made to give all the money that they were selling it for,
To the Actual programmers--

So; Rather than comply with that court order,
They just started giving it away for Free,
Which Forced Netscape to give away it's Browser for Free.

Then Somehow or another...???
M$ got Their most Allegedly Detested Enemy at that time:
AOL, To buy Netscape;
And then instead of replacing their own lame browser with Netscape,
They just shelved it.
And it effectively disappeared.

But curiously;
What Browser was AOL then using for it's service.
Were they using their own Browser? No.
Were they using the newly acquired Netscape? No.

They decided to use M$'s Explorer.

A very large reason for this was because M$ had just recently figured out that, Having an effective OS monopoly, They could start distributing HTML & Java code that were incompatible with all the other Browsers.

So it seemed like Explorer was better, More reliable.

But it was a dirty, rotten trick.

-----------------------------------------:: o

Monopolies
. . . . . . . . . .

Granted; M$ is not a Monopoly like Jehovah or Allah is The Only Gawd,

But they are a De facto Monopoly in which their influence and ability to create faux Standards by which 3rd Party Software Programmers must adhere to,
Or be excluded from the Electronic Age--
Makes it a Dangerous Entity.

A Consumer might choose to buy An Apple Macintosh,
Or use a Linux Operating System,
But by doing so; They must choose to enter into a pact with lesser gawds, and isolate themselves from The World Community.

The Computer Industry & The Internet Should be Founded on a Set of Protocols & Standards that Serve as a Basis for Anyone to Write A Program for,
So that all Documents can be easily Shared & Built upon,
So that you don't need 30 different Media Players on Your Computer,
So that There can be not 2 or 3 Platforms to Choose from.
But Hundreds or Thousands.

The Evolution of Life on Earth Depended on Animals Trying Billions of Variations to Achieve The Pinnacle of Creation:
The Golden Hamster.

If M$ were in charge of Evolution;
There would be nothing more than Sophisticated than Lampreys driving Honda Civics around our 21st Century Freeways.

-----------------------------------------:: o

Why Apple Failed to Become A Dominant Player
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Apple's own Greed has given us the Microsoft Empire. ( Lisanne!
- - - -

i agree that Apple should have licensed it's OS--

But in the early days of Apple they were constrained by a different philosophy of Computer Architecture,
That doesn't apply so much these days...

But early on; The first IBM Clones followed the same Template as IBM and were just hacking their computers together.
All those early computer companies just wanted to get in the game.

Apple and Atari were trying to pioneer a coherent architectural structure that they hoped with become the de facto standards...
But they forgot one thing.

People are morons.

The Public invariably chose the slightly, or not so slightly cheaper machine, even though Apple & Atari enthusiasts kept telling them that they'd end up paying many times more for the same functionality of an Apple or Atari, than they would if they bought an Apple or Atari in the first place.

But The Damp Masses didn't listen.

Plus; Most people never really did anything with their computers.
The early computers didn't really do anything except slightly more sophisticated typing, and the printouts looked horrible.
The Games were crude and the whole business was little more than a fad.

Apple & Atari could see beyound that,
But it would be several decades before computers really became functional.
Even today; Most people use computers for games, email and wandering aimlessly on the internet.
Even Internet shopping is still in it's infancy.

So through this all...
M$ has been able to dominate the industry because it understood mediocrity from the beginning, And never outgrew it.

They faithfully kept up with the diminished expectations of The Idiots that run this world,
That predominant Bump in The Middle of an IQ Curve.

-----------------------------------------:: o

Inappropriate Pictures Posted to The ~M$ Group
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It may well be that these inappropriate postings are put here by M$ agents to dilute & nullify the validity of this groups message.
It is not simply that they are arguing for it's antithesis, but they are disrupting the argument itself, suggesting that their position is completely untenable.

The Crime that they are committing is wanton immaturity.
And the suitable punishment is enforced, cruel and unrelenting politeness!

Perhaps the most sensible approach would simply be to send the poster of an inappropriate or off topic picture, a note suggesting that the picture was malapropos for this group, and that they, not the administrators, should remove it.

If they would not...

Then; i suppose that we would hope that when they are dead and standing before Jebus, he will met out some appropriate terms in hades for them.

Also:
Freedom of Speech entails the corollary;
Freedom of NoSpeech.
Which is the Trust of Responsible Speech.

-----------------------------------------:: o

What Happened to The Anger?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

What Happened to The Indignation & Anger...???
What Happened to The Wrath & Irascible Slow Burn...???
What Happened to The Fury & Exasperation...???
What Happened to The Vexation, Livid with Ire...???
What Happened to The Infuriation, Maddened by Irksome Annoyance...???
What Happened to The Simple, Ruddy Faced Outrage fueled by Simmering Black Bile...???
What Happened to The Rattling of Cages, Howling All Night & The Urine Soaked Pajamas...???
What Happened to The Pools of Blood accumulating under door stops while Hungry Mice, The Size of toasters, scratched frantically at the sheet of plywood covering there filthy milk carton crates...???
What Happened to The Mother's Screams written on black boards in abandoned school houses in the mid-west...???
What Happened to The Hackles, Riled up like soiled diapers at a Farmers Market on a Drizzly Thursday Afternoon...???

huh. ( ? )

You can't change the world by going door to door collecting coupons or IOU's for imaginary units of ennui or sitting in your basement, hiding under the stairwell.

You change the world by mopping up the puddle of carrot rich vomit that your cat just left in the living room and concentrating all your psychic energy at the moon where it can be collected my giant mechanical ants, where it will be used to power a weapon of Love for all three legged hamsters that want to live free & dance with lavender rabbits at the winter solstice.

Be Gone all you Ne'er do Wells...!!!

Let Anger again rule this group as it did 3 or 4 hours ago.

sigh.

-----------------------------------------:: o
Bits from AndrewTheArtist's Rant... ( Verification & Additional Details; Desired )

Microsoft has made acquisitions over the years, but mainly smaller ones to jump-start a fledgling business or pick up a needed technology. Its media player, voice recognition, health search and business software, among others, are technologies Microsoft bought along with the companies that created them.

Microsoft has made 50 acquisitions.
-----------------------------------------:: o
Fun Characters...
⌘ ⌤ ⌥ ⌂ ⎋ ➜ ⇢ ⇣ ⇠ ⇡ ⇱ ⇲
© ™ ℅ æ œ ᴁ € ¤ £ ¥ α β μ ℵ π
Ξ.6 ∴ ☯ ☤ ☥ ☠ ⌛ ☼ ☽ ✍ ☒ ✜ ✄
♲ ☢ ❄ ♔ ♕ ♚ ♛ ✪ ☭ ✞ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥
½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅕ ⅙ ⅛
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦ ← ↑ ‍ → ↓ ↔ « » ‹ › ◊
¡ ¿ € £ ¤ ¥ ¢ ‰ ¶ “ ” „ ‌ ¦ ‡ † §© ™ ® ¹ ² ³ ¼ ½ ¾
· · ª º ¨ × ÷ − √ ∞ ∩ ∫ ± ¬ ~ ≈ ≠ ≡ ◊ ø Ø ≤ ≥
Δ Ω α β π µ ð ∂ ∏ ∑ ƒ
Æ Ç Ð Ñ Þ ßßβ æ ç ð ñ ø þ
À Á Â Ã Ä Å È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü Ý
à á â ã ä å è é ê ë ì í î ï ò ó ô õ ö ù ú û ý ÿ
-----------------------------------------:: o