Be, Inc. announced today it has filed suit against Microsoft for the destruction of Be’s business resulting from the anticompetitive business practices of Microsoft. The lawsuit alleges, among other claims, that Microsoft harmed Be through a series of illegal exclusionary and anticompetitive acts designed to maintain its monopoly in the Intel-compatible PC operating system market and created exclusive dealing arrangements with PC OEMs prohibiting the sale of PCs with multiple preinstalled operating systems. Our Take: This suit should have been initiated 3 years ago. Furthermore, notice the black mourning stripe on the Be logo at the Be web site. Dan Johnston, Be’s legal counsel, is the only person left working at Be’s new tiny office in Mountain View these days. Update: News.com has more info found in the filing itself and a mini-statement from Microsoft’s spokesman.
Be, Inc. Files Suit Against Microsoft for Violations of Antitrust Laws
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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>was there ever a thread with 100 comments in it? only 3 more to go
Sure, OSNews has quite a number of stories with more than 100 comments. Check http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=509“>this for example, which is our record so far: 294 comments for a single story.
I think IBM could sue but their case would not Be as strong as Be’s case because:
– OS/2 was originaly a joint development with Microsoft.
– Microsoft had full rights to OS/2 code to later develop NT
– I’m not certain that IBM pushed to get OEMs to preinstall it.
– IBM is a Windows NT licensee (they agreed to MSFT’s terms.)
ciao
yc
I predict that over the next 2-3 years a number of companies/corporations will sue Microsoft on similar grounds. The tactics that have seen Microsoft rise to such a dominant position may well be their undoing. If all the big companies turn the screw… IBM (OS/2), Sun (Java), Netscape, and more. It could get very interesting.
All of a sudden, Microsoft doesn’t seem so untouchable.
“I remember their multiple attacks against Digital Research, from the CP/M-86 era up through DR-DOS, that eventually forced them out of existence.”
Digital Research were bought by (Ray Noorda’s) Novell Inc. who continued to sell DR-DOS for quite a while.
It looks like Be has a very strong case, IMO. A lot of it will depend on whether these other computer companies will testify. Its far too late to make any difference in BeOS, but hopefully, investers and employees that lost a bunch of money would get some compensation ( me included!). Microsoft deserves to be punished…badly !! Hopefully, this would help open the door for other OS’s to make their way onto the x86 platform. It would be nice to be able to order a computer with a choice of OS. I wonder if this lawsuit being brought out now has anything to do with JLG out of the company.
gsc, I don’t think it’s because jlg is gone. I think this is something they have been planning for a while. I’m guessing when the liquidated they gave the person left a few year salary advance and told him to work on this for the next few years cause it will most likely take a few. Since they have no money left and he’s been paid. Theres not much to loose here.
Sure, you can assume that it is too late to resurect Be Inc. That is almost a given. But what about the publicity this case could mean for the BeOS clones?
There are several opensource projects that seem to be viable replacements for BeOS that are at least source compatible with BeOS. Linux fans who are the ifitisnotopensourceiwontuseitbecauseicanttuneithowiwantit type should take notice to these projects because they incorporate all of the benefits of Be with the benefits of opensource. These projects will contain many of the innovations that Be provided along with several variations.
I believe that Be winning this lawsuit would greatly increase awareness of these projects (by way of people becoming more aware of Be itself) if not actually providing funds to support them.
any of those opensource alternatives to BeOS in a usable state? If so, you have any url?
not in a useable state.. yet.. open-beos.sourceforge.net based on ex-Be kernel engineer Travis G’s newos.sourceforge.net pet kernel project..
He’s all his fault!!!
he didn’t really work on marketing the beos.. he just hire bunch of old marketing management sit there.. getting paid.. BAD MARKETING DEPT ON BEOS.
JLG.. it’s all your fault!