Members Thunderbroom Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 This is kinda old news, but... Many have called for Microsoft to be broken up because it's a monopoly. Personally, I've never bought in to that line of thinking. Those of us that have been using computers for a while remember when WordPerfect was THE word processor. MS Word came along and dethroned it. AutoCad has been the defacto Cad software but is getting a run for it's money by the likes of Pro-E and others. Twenty plus years ago CNN started it's 24 hour news service. It reigned supreme for years. Along came FoxNews (FauxNews for all the haters) and dethroned the mighty CNN. These numbers are kinda staggering to me in that the race isn't even close. I wonder if more people are watching cable news now adays and just chose Fox or if there was a shift in the folks already watching the news. CABLE NEWS RACEWEDS NITE, OCT 12, 2005VIEWERS FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,687,000FOXNEWS HANNITY/COLMES 1,559,000FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 1,500,000FOXNEWS GRETA 1,499,000CNN KING 821,000CNN ZAHN 818,000CNN COOPER 766,000CNN BROWN 687,000CNNHN GRACE 653,000MSNBC RITA COSBY 455,000MSNBC HARDBALL 429,000MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 334,000MSNBC OLBERMANN 319,000MSNBC TUCKER 280,000 *and for the record, I don't watch much TV news anymore, but when I do I watch either ABC7 in Chicago or FoxNews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 It's not illegal to BE a monopoly. It's illegal to engage in monopolistic practices. MS was wildly guilty of this back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mlwarriner Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 i've pretty much stopped watching news alltogether. i used to watch some, before i went to baghdad, but seeing first hand the disparity between the truth and the news just turned me clear off of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members takeout Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 I think CNN and MSNBC are fighting over the same viewers, whereas Fox has no competition in their "niche". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thunderbroom Posted October 14, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by lug It's not illegal to BE a monopoly. As the public schools will attest to. Originally posted by lug It's illegal to engage in monopolistic practices. In IL, local schools have control over what can and can't be a charter (not really private I guess) school. It's like they're saying, "You can try new and creative ways of education...as long as we agree with it." This is a major reason that we have very, very few charter schools in the state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by mlwarriner i've pretty much stopped watching news alltogether. i used to watch some, before i went to baghdad, but seeing first hand the disparity between the truth and the news just turned me clear off of it. Yep, the line between "news" and "editorial" was lost a long time ago. "Agenda" would best describe what now passes for news. I BLAME G.W. Bush! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beam Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 news.google.com There is no substitute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fran da Man Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Agena...wtf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thunderbroom Posted October 14, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by takeout I think CNN and MSNBC are fighting over the same viewers, whereas Fox has no competition in their "niche". That very well could be. I just added up the numbers (I'm a dork like that). Fox - 7,245,000CNN/MSNBC - 5,338,000 It looks Fox has a bigger audience overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by Fran da Man Agena...wtf? ...remember, always quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Moody Johnny Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 "I am Ruupert Muurdooch! SEIZE THEM!" Ok, speaking more seriously: On the consumer level, monopolies are just one more factor restricting the range of choice. The only string brand the local music equipment store in my home town has decided to sell, is D'Addario. It could be worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fran da Man Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by lug ...remember, always quote Oh...now you're saying "I" did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Undertoad Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 If there are viable competitors it is not a monopoly. In the category of "television news" there are a number of non-cable shows which beat Fox's numbers at any given time. The nightly news broadcasts, although they are losing their appeal, get double the numbers that Fox gets. Furthermore, three out of the four highest-rated Fox programs you mentioned are not news, but punditry. (Shep is news, the others not so much.) On that matter, "Meet The Press" and its ilk get similar or higher numbers than O'Reilly. If you count The Daily Show as news/punditry - and I think you can - it probably beats all the news channels combined, every night, especially if you count its reruns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by Fran da Man Oh...now you're saying "I" did it. It's not my fault you are an evil wrong-doer type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SunRaFan Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by Thunderbroom This is kinda old news, but...Many have called for Microsoft to be broken up because it's a monopoly. Personally, I've never bought in to that line of thinking. Those of us that have been using computers for a while remember when WordPerfect was THE word processor. MS Word came along and dethroned it. AutoCad has been the defacto Cad software but is getting a run for it's money by the likes of Pro-E and others. The reason that Microsoft's monopoly is bad for consumers is exactly because of things like the example you cited. Microsoft leveraged their OS monopoly to create a monopoly for their Office products. They did the same thing for internet explorer, although it turned to sort of backfire because you can't make any money off of web browsers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fran da Man Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by lug It's not my fault you are an evil wrong-doer type. Quick!!! think of a retaliation remark for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thunderbroom Posted October 14, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by SunRaFan The reason that Microsoft's monopoly is bad for consumers is exactly because of things like the example you cited. Microsoft leveraged their OS monopoly to create a monopoly for their Office products. They did the same thing for internet explorer, although it turned to sort of backfire because you can't make any money off of web browsers. But can't someone just go out and buy an Apple? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beam Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by Thunderbroom But can't someone just go out and buy an Apple? Yup. No one is forced to use any MS product, it's entirely up to the company and how they want to work. There are FREE alternatives to almost everything that MS puts out. Harder to use? Sometimes, but you still have the choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by Fran da Man Quick!!! think of a retaliation remark for me... Lug! You are SO good looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tenyearsgone Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by beam Yup.No one is forced to use any MS product, it's entirely up to the company and how they want to work.There are FREE alternatives to almost everything that MS puts out. Harder to use? Sometimes, but you still have the choice. While true, some people FEEL like they're forced because WINXP comes on just about any computer you buy.If people only knew that they DIDN'T HAVE to use windows. When you buy a new PC you have the option to take windows off and save yourself around $200 for the cost of the OS licenseing fee... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beam Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by tenyearsgone While true, some people FEEL like they're forced because WINXP comes on just about any computer you buy. Well I can't help how some people feel hehe.If they feel a certain way, that's on them...it doesn't make it their only option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tenyearsgone Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by beam Well I can't help how some people feel hehe. If they feel a certain way, that's on them...it doesn't make it their only option That's what I mean, people have choices (Linux, FreeBSD, MAC) I think people won't want to go home with a blank PC though, if they choose the option to have winblows taken off thier PC at the store. Most people are computer illiterate and don't know any other alternative than winblows. THAT'S where M$ cashes in. Sad for a fleeced public. Big $$ for M$. I hate them I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members niomosy Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by lug It's not illegal to BE a monopoly. It's illegal to engage in monopolistic practices. MS was wildly guilty of this back in the day. +1 MS did some nasty stuff when they were able to. They still try to get away with as much as they can but there's a lot of people keeping a constant eye on them these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beam Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 I don't feel badly for people to lazy to learn how to use something different. Most of the people with computers, after all, don't have any desire to learn something new and they use the machine for very few specific tasks. Home users anyway. A cheap-ass Dell running XP serves their purpose, and that's all they care about. Do I care that MS cleans up on this? Not really, it's their luck and marketing that got them to where they are now. They are the default, for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members niomosy Posted October 14, 2005 Members Share Posted October 14, 2005 Originally posted by tenyearsgone While true, some people FEEL like they're forced because WINXP comes on just about any computer you buy.If people only knew that they DIDN'T HAVE to use windows. When you buy a new PC you have the option to take windows off and save yourself around $200 for the cost of the OS licenseing fee... Not quite true. Take Dell, for example. If you configure your system on their website and purchase it on their website, you'll find no option for removing Windows. Just XP Home, XP Pro and maybe Windows 2000 (probably just for servers these days). IIRC, you have to call to have Windows removed as the OS. I believe HP has the same setup. It doesn't exactly make things easy for the consumer. Now, some vendors are starting to put Linux on but it's only on certain systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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