This article was printed in the Premier Issue of Likewise Magazine, out of South Wales, UK.  It was written in January, 1997. The editor was Gavin Leigh, who is now, in 2008, a member of the UK band Miracleman:
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Walking the Path to Microsoft Hell
 
    There is a really old adage in business that you "give away the razors to sell the blades."  The logic is that I can give you a razor, but the catch is, if you like using it, you have to buy more blades.
    In any market, all you have to do is look to identify what are the razors and what are the blades.  In computers, the computer itself is the razor.  You buy it once.  Therefore, the software are the blades.  You buy them all the time.  In the telephone business, phone companies will all but give you a cel phone...only to require you to buy a year's activation at some ungodly fee.
    Have you noticed that Microsoft Explorer is getting around on the internet?  This is because, unlike Netscape, Microsoft Explorer is free.  So, Microsoft Explorer is the Razor...
    What possibly could be the catch?  What good does it do for Bill Gates to toss out millions of copies of millions of dollars worth of software?  The answer lies in the path...to control the world.
Ode to the Humanitarians
    There is a strong difference between humanitarianism and business.  In humanitarian values, success is based upon the welfare and growth of people -- based upon the enrichment of values other than money.  In business, to succeed is to show growth through market acceptance, which is measured in dollars.  
    Microsoft has been flooding the markets with free software.  For example, if you want a media server from your internet provider so that you can provide streaming audio and, in time, video, you can buy the best on the market from Progressive Networks for $100 per stream, or from Netscape for $995, but Microsoft's own version is free.  How can anyone compete?
    The ploy, it would seem, is the crush and conquer method.  No one can compete with free, so for a time, all other companies would go out of business while Microsoft becomes the accepted standard.  Once this is truly accomplished, phase two would then be to create an enhanced environment that calls all of these free media platforms into unified existence, and then to begin charging.
    This technique is not new.  John McAfee did it with his McAfee's Anti-Virus software for quite a while.  Once his became the standard, he then enforced a licensing structure for professional computer site uses, and was able to command a good return.  McAfee now owns and gives away PowWow communicator (www.tribal.com).
    However, when one company that has as much control over our lives as Microsoft appears to command, what is left is not just better business profits for Microsoft, but a powerplay by Bill Gates to become world commander of the internet.  With the amount of power that he will employ, and, given, that his programs have been licensed with the possibility that Microsoft may be able to back-connect into your computer and check you out while you are checking the internet out, leaves many unanswered questions.
Beware of Hidden Agendas
    So, what we have seen is Microsoft, aka Bill Gates, has been giving away the razors, but not telling us what the blades are, or how much they will cost.  I can tell you that I don't expect them to come cheap.
    What if one day your computer locks you out and tells you these platforms are no longer free?  What if this program were to encrypt everything on your hard drive that is Microsoft's products under this licensing enforcement?  It would force you to pay.  You have changed your life to function around an existing set of behaviors using specific applications.  There would be no better form of electronic extortion.  By trusting the goodness of an egotistically driven control freak, it is to be questioned as to how can there be anything good for everyone in the outcome.
The Rude Awakening
    If you had not seen it coming, I just wanted to open up your mind a bit so that you might see more clearly.  The world, as we know it, is in a very precarious position, and Bill Gates is holding the strings.  He is beginning to behave like a tyrant, as he is setting himself for a position of absolute power.
    The time for the birth of the Resistance is upon us.  We must gather and defend, giving stronger support to the non-free platforms in the internet, or all our lives could be destroyed at the push of a single button.  It's not atomic weapons this time, but informational chaos and disorder...and the man to destroy us all will be Bill Gates.

© 1997 David I. Brager