Toolkit

Story: Microsoft's security strategy pilloried

• 
• 

Perhaps today's anti-virus and anti-spyware vendors should learn from Microsoft's historic examples. Meaning:

- "motivate" their current customers into 3 years or longer license contracts with lots of legal footprints that can later on be turned into extra revenue
- "motivate" potential new competitors (like Microsoft) to look for revenue elsewhere or else anti-virus products will begin having troubles and work less then expected on, say, Windows systems
- (almost) giving away add-on functionality software that integrates so thightly with everything else it'll be nearly impossible to replace a single thing without breaking the whole system down
- get a legal grip on resellers and the like by making them sign contracts that'll demand a premium per sold item regardless of what product is actually sold with it
- sponser all sorts of ïndependant researchers that'll make look Microsoft's products worser then spam itself
- partner with other vendors to help kill a combined competitor and once that done kill the partner
- hire lobbiests to inspire the EU into signing a law that prohibits the combined use of an OS and anti-whatever from the same vendor
- give dozens of schools free software and what not so later on the kids will know nothing else then what you want them to like and understand
- etc

Ofcourse, this all would be highly illegal behaviour but then again it's likely it'll produce a lot of profit and a locked-in customer base that, after several years in court, will end in having to pay a fine of, say, less then 1% of the total profits gained.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Full Talkback thread