Sun Microsystems-Reality Check
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Heads up December 10, 1997
Big Brother? Look Who's Talking.In the Wall Street Journal Article titled "Sun Develops Software to Foil Microsoft's Bid to Rein in Java," (December 10, 1997), Tod Nielsen, Microsoft's general manager of developer relations said "[But Activator] sounds like Big Brother technology. Having software mysteriously search a user's machine and then replace it with something it views as kosher, isn't what Microsoft's about. We believe in customer choice."Before jumping to any conclusions about Big Brother or customer choice or remote control, consider the following from court documents filed with the Department of Justice. They confirm that in Windows 98, the IE4 browser will not only become the desktop, it will subtly control access to content on the Web with its "channel bar," guiding users to Microsoft's preferred Web locations. Supplemental documents in the DOJ's Civil Action describe Microsoft's licensing strategy as prohibiting OEMs from "removing any channels delivered by Microsoft." In particular, Gateway 2000 expressed a desire to customize the IE4 channel bar to provide channels that may be of unique interest to its customers. Microsoft's response was, "The only modification that Gateway will be allowed is to add one channel that provides Gateway content." In sum, the only way that Gateway is permitted to customize the IE4 desktop for its customers is to include an icon on another element of the active desktop. If that's not a deliberate attempt to control content selection on the Internet, then what does one call it? Microsoft calls it serving the needs of its customers, and making access to the Internet easy. Looks more like the beginning of the company's push into controlled access to Web content. Microsoft has repeatedly said that customization of the desktop may only occur through a "customer-executed decision." The company also maintains that a consumer's choice is not compromised because users can customize a desktop by clicking on an icon and going through some additional set up procedures. But Microsoft knows full-well that the PC market has moved beyond the early adopter's phase. With heightened consumer interest in joining the "dot com" world, and PC prices falling below the $1000 mark, many unsophisticated users will happily use whatever browser comes pre-installed on their new home computer.
They will be mesmerized by the Internet. And when they visit a Web site for
the very first time, they won't even know that their "choices" are really
pre-selected sites that Microsoft has provided via the channel bar built into
IE4. Now that's remote control.
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