Quote: "They buy all this crap up, fail at it, and then leave it ruins. And if they do succeed with it, they monopolize the market."
I'll quote a wikipedia page:
Quote: "Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry. The majority of criticism has been for its business tactics, often described with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version."
MS embraced trueSpace, not sure what they did to extend it, and is now extinguishing it. One has to wonder where trueSpace would be now if MS hadn't gotten it's grubby little hands on it. MS has more than enough money to keep trueSpace going, but apparently it's extended it's front's a bit to far and now needs to retract. Sounds to me like Roman history or Napoleon. Extend yourself to far and you become weak.
I have a problem with any business that does these sort of things. Autodesk, while not as maniacal as MS, seems to be very active in buying up their competitors. I don't have as much of a problem with them if they acquire a small company that, let's say, has a better UV mapping system than they do and buy to include it on their own product. That's a symbiotic relationship and making it a better place. But when you have a business monopolizing a market, competition get's less and less and the quality of the products coming out becomes poorer and poorer.
"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
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http://strewnfield.wordpress.com/ (Last updated 05/06/09)
