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The Microsoft File : The Secret Case Against Bill Gates
The Microsoft File is an extraordinary fly-on-the-wall account of Microsoft's intent to monopolize the computer industry. Wendy Goldman Rohm takes you to the inner sanctum of Microsoft, has you sit in on meetings between Microsoft and important customers and competitors, and looks at the struggles of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as they try to develop a strategy to counter one of the most serious charges of market manipulation since John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.
The Microsoft File is based on information from not one but many "Deep Throats," as well as internal documents that tell a story
> How Microsoft's predatory marketing and pricing behavior belies its claims of fair competition.
> How Microsoft killed the market for a competitor's operating system, a system that could have challenged MS-DOS.
> How bugging devices were found in the hotel room of a supposed business partner of Microsoft's the day before a critical meeting with Microsoft.
> How Microsoft inserted hidden code in the beta version of Windows 3.1, creating fear in the marketplace that competing products would crash and adding a byte in the final version that was marketed so the hidden code wouldn't appear on the screen.
> How close Apple came to discarding the Macintosh operating system for Windows, and the real reason why Bill Gates decided to invest some $250 million in Apple.
> How Microsoft, despite nondisclosure agreements, obtained and used technological secrets from competitors.
> How the biggest mergers in the software industry unfolded, blow-by-blow, as Microsoft's competitors tried to survive the increasing power of the Gates juggernaut.
Is Microsoft's rise as the world's most powerful and successful company a classic example of the free market, as many Microsoft apologists contend? Is its success, and the failure of other companies, the result of the creative destruction that makes capitalism so strong? The Microsoft File suggests that other forces were at work.
The Microsoft File is based on information from not one but many "Deep Throats," as well as internal documents that tell a story
> How Microsoft's predatory marketing and pricing behavior belies its claims of fair competition.
> How Microsoft killed the market for a competitor's operating system, a system that could have challenged MS-DOS.
> How bugging devices were found in the hotel room of a supposed business partner of Microsoft's the day before a critical meeting with Microsoft.
> How Microsoft inserted hidden code in the beta version of Windows 3.1, creating fear in the marketplace that competing products would crash and adding a byte in the final version that was marketed so the hidden code wouldn't appear on the screen.
> How close Apple came to discarding the Macintosh operating system for Windows, and the real reason why Bill Gates decided to invest some $250 million in Apple.
> How Microsoft, despite nondisclosure agreements, obtained and used technological secrets from competitors.
> How the biggest mergers in the software industry unfolded, blow-by-blow, as Microsoft's competitors tried to survive the increasing power of the Gates juggernaut.
Is Microsoft's rise as the world's most powerful and successful company a classic example of the free market, as many Microsoft apologists contend? Is its success, and the failure of other companies, the result of the creative destruction that makes capitalism so strong? The Microsoft File suggests that other forces were at work.
313 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 16, 2019
Tutto il mondo usa windows. Ma è davvero una creatura di Bill Gates? Il libro - una raccolta di fatti documentati sul come microsoft abbia raggiunto l'attuale posizione di predominio commerciale - è poi diventato elemento probatorio in una delle cause statunitensi contro il colosso di Redmond. Un testo che, al di là dei numeri e delle date, aiuta a comprendere che il merito non va sempre dove dovrebbe, ma spesso a chi sa farla franca.
August 1, 2012
Sicuramente chi l'ha scritto non amava la Microsoft e Bill Gates, dato che questa versione semi-romanzata dell'indagine antitrust avvenuta negli anni 90 contro il colosso di Redmond non sempre sembra totalmente obiettiva. Fatto sta che la lettura rimane interessante.
January 2, 2020
The ending could be better, with more information about how all it ended for Microsoft. But it's an entertaining read
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews