[News] Microsoft Stifles Competition Through API's

Roy Schestowitz · External Since: Jun 26, 2005 Posts: 26136

Microsoft accused of withholding Vista APIs

,----[ Quote ]
| Anti-malware company Symantec has accused Microsoft of withholding
| key information about its upcoming Vista operating system, in an attempt
| to gain an unfair advantage in the security market.
`----

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39283659,00.htm

John Bailo · External Since: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 2319

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Microsoft accused of withholding Vista APIs
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Anti-malware company Symantec has accused Microsoft of withholding
> | key information about its upcoming Vista operating system, in an attempt
> | to gain an unfair advantage in the security market.
> `----
>
> http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39283659,00.htm

LOL. This is news?

How do you think they put Lotus 1-2-3 out of business in 1989?

They withheld the Windows 3.1 API information, leaving the Windowed
version of Lotus to flounder for months, leaving Excel to be the only
major GUI'd spreadsheet around and ending Lotus's dominance.

--
Texeme Construct

Larry Qualig · External Since: Nov 11, 2005 Posts: 1106

John Bailo wrote:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> > Microsoft accused of withholding Vista APIs
> >
> > ,----[ Quote ]
> > | Anti-malware company Symantec has accused Microsoft of withholding
> > | key information about its upcoming Vista operating system, in an attempt
> > | to gain an unfair advantage in the security market.
> > `----
> >
> > http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39283659,00.htm
>
> LOL. This is news?

It's not news because this is no longer true, Roy knows it isn't true,
but he's intentionally posting old article neverless.

Microsoft creates Vista APIs for security firms
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/79542

> How do you think they put Lotus 1-2-3 out of business in 1989?
>
> They withheld the Windows 3.1 API information, leaving the Windowed
> version of Lotus to flounder for months, leaving Excel to be the only
> major GUI'd spreadsheet around and ending Lotus's dominance.
>

That's a nice conspiracy theory worthy of Rex. Other than it's based on
COLA folklore there isn't much truth to it. For starters I was already
working in the software industry there

and the Windows API/SDK was available to everyone. Microsoft was
promoting Windows in a big way and there were hundreds, perhaps
thousands of Windows apps being written. It's interesting that AutoDesk
was able to use the published API to create a Windows version of
AutoCad but somehow Lotus was not.

Here's a more plausible explanation of what happened -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3

<quote>

The rise of Microsoft Windows in the personal computer market was
accompanied by the rise in Microsoft's competing spreadsheet, Excel,
and it gradually usurped the position of 1-2-3. Being loyal to OS/2,
Lotus was slow to embrace Windows. At first, a complete rewrite was
planned to overtake Excel, but this project failed to turn out a
finished product. 1-2-3 for Windows is still simply a graphical wrapper
around the original interface. Additionally, several versions of 1-2-3
were available concurrently, each with different functionality and a
slightly different interface.

</quote>

Yes, that's right. Lotus bet on OS/2 and released it's spreadsheet on
OS/2 instead of Windows. By the time Lotus commited to a Windows
version it was too little, too late.

Ian Hilliard · External Since: Nov 04, 2004 Posts: 443

Larry Qualig wrote:

> Microsoft creates Vista APIs for security firms
> http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/79542
>

Is this one set of API's for the security vendors and another set for
Microsoft? This is the trick used by Microsoft to screw over the producers
of alternate Office packages.

Ian

Larry Qualig · External Since: Nov 11, 2005 Posts: 1106

Ian Hilliard wrote:
> Larry Qualig wrote:
>
> > Microsoft creates Vista APIs for security firms
> > http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/79542
> >
>

> Is this one set of API's for the security vendors and another
> set for Microsoft?

Hopefully not but I don't know or care enough about the anti-virus APIs
to bother looking into it.

> This is the trick used by Microsoft to screw over the
> producers of alternate Office packages.

Ah yes... this tired old conspiracy once again. Do explain IN DETAIL
why it is that the published Windows API was adequate enough to develop
Windows versions of AutoCad, PageMaker, PhotoShop, PC-Anywhere,
debuggers and just about every other application you can think of. But
somehow this API was so disfunctional that something as "complex" as a
spreadsheet was impossible to develop.