much better of a product. Take for instance the current effort to develop the Digital Video Disc (DVD) standard. DVD’s are compact discs that are capable of storing 4900 megabytes of information as apposed to the 650 megabytes that can be stored on a CD-ROM disc now. For this reason, DVD’s have enormous possibilities in both the computer industry and in the movie industry. For about the last year, companies such as Sony, Mitsubishi, and other prominent electronics manufacturers have been trying to decide on a set of standards for the DVD format. Unfortunately, these standards meetings have gone nowhere, and subsequently, many of the companies have broken off in different directions, trying to develop their own standards. In the end, there won’t be one, definite standard, but instead, many standards, all of which are very different from one another. Consumers will be forced to make a decision on which standard to choose, and if they pick the wrong one, they could be stuck down the road with a DVD player that is worthless. Had only one company set the standards, much like Microsoft has in the software business, there wouldn’t be the confusion that arose, and the consumers could sit back and relax, knowing that the DVD format is secure and won’t be changed. Another conclusion that many anti-Microsoft people and other people around the world jump to is that the moment that we have a company, such as Microsoft, who is very successful, they immediately think that there must be something wrong; they have to be doing something illegal or immoral to have become this immense. This is not the case. Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft has not gained its enormous popularity through monopolistic and illegal measures, but instead through superior products. I feel that people do have brains, and therefore have the capacity to make rational decisions based on what they think is right. If people didn’t like the Micro...
