Go sues microsoft

jul 6th

poor Go. they were the victim of one of microsoft's most egregious 'overhanging the market' tricks. as soon as Go announced their pen computing initiative, microsoft apparently did a nondisclosure with them, understood their direction, and promptly announced microsoft's own pen initiative. which of course caused Go to die a slow, painful death as everyone began to wait for microsoft's Pen Windows. as soon as Go was killed off, microsoft shelved the pen computing initiative.

someone did a spoof on the apocryphal 'microsoft kitchen' where a maker of stoves is driven out of business by microsoft announcing the new and wonderful roadmap to build a microsoft stove. (i just googled 'microsoft kitchen', and lo and behold, there is a roadmap of that name right now, although i didnt bother to read it -- this is hilarious! life imitating fiction?)

a lot of silicon valley types saw the Go case as the archetypal microsoft approach to taking over promising markets. Go had a lot of hype behind it, and looked quite promising.

although, in microsoft's defense, i should say that handwriting recognition was probably too difficult at the time for anyone to pull off, and in hindsight, it was probably not such a great idea anyway. even palm, once successful with its graffiti, has backed away from it.  i personally find that i have gone from being a regular graffiti scribbler to being content with pecking at a keyboard onscreen. but it is possible that Go had good operating system ideas which may have, eventually, come to fruition at places like palm or Be with their tiny OS as compared to microsoft behemoths. wasn't Be also suing microsoft?

looks like microsoft is also trying to settle its suits by throwing money at them rather than the old tactic of crushing the opponent through protracted and expensive legal battles. an attempt at image makeover in the wake of widespread public and regulator animosity? microsoft does need to get away from its take-no-prisoners style, which is a little offputting in a giant dominating the industry.

is microsoft really under some pressure as intel woos apple and the mac os x may appear on pcs as an alternative, while linux is also making headway?

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12065856.htm