We’re thrilled about this European smackdown on the Borg


Honestly, it’s long overdue, and we’re especially encouraged by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes (photo) saying that users are “suffering at the hands of Microsoft” and that she’d like to see a “significant drop” in Microsoft’s operating-system market share. We’ve proposed a great way for Europe to accomplish this and I’m happy to say that so far they seem to be listening to us. Which is more than I can say for the U.S. government which is still stuck with this quaint idea that governments shouldn’t decide how much market share any one company should have in any one market. Like somehow it would be some great sin to say, from now on, Apple gets fifty percent and Microsoft gets fifty percent, and may the best man win.

The U.S. bozos are just wedded to this ridiculous 19th-century notion that the market can just decide what it wants and that customers know best and that if we just leave things alone they will work out for the best. Please. These politicians worship the friggin almighty market and it’s so naive I don’t know where to begin. Look at the situation. We’ve had a superior offering — and I mean far superior — for nearly a decade. But we’re hardly gaining any market share. If you want to know what irks the Valley about Microsoft it’s that all of us have been making much better products than what Microsoft makes, but the market keeps “choosing” the Borg. (I put “choosing” in quotes because in fact what users have is only an illusion of choice.)

The great thing about Europeans is that they see through this crazy rhetoric and they’re more than willing to have the government step in and decide how things should be. Some people call it a “nanny state” but my feeling is, why is that considered a bad thing? What’s wrong with nannies? Look at Mary Poppins. Place was a mess before she got there. As for all this spin about how now other companies are going to be in trouble in Europe, including Apple, let’s just say that we’ve figured out a little strategy for coping with these folks, and it involves a little something called the iPhone. Bokay? Peace out. (Photo: Bert Sweep, Free Market Weekly.)