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Who's Zooming Who (7/26/98)
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Wow, look at the line of companies waiting to complain about ways in which Microsoft has unfairly prevented them from competing in the software market! It goes darn near all the way around the block! And who's next to file a grievance? Why, it's RealNetworks, those wacky guys who brought us RealAudio and RealPlayer. Let's watch as chief executive Rob Glaser, a former longtime Microsoft employee himself, tells Orrin Hatch's Senate Judiciary Committee that Microsoft released rival internet sound and video software that, when installed, causes RealPlayer to stop functioning. Flip channels over to Reuters for the whole sordid drama (but be sure to flip back!).
Glaser would appear to have an airtight complaint; he demonstrated a system loaded with RealPlayer and showed that everything worked properly. Then, as the committee watched, he installed Microsoft's competing Windows Media Player product. When he next tried to run RealPlayer again, the system simply displayed a Microsoft error message. Sounds pretty clear-cut, right? First product works, competing product is installed, first product no longer works. Yet immediately after this simple concept was demonstrated live to the committee, Microsoft waited for Glaser to leave the room and then, in a grand display of their internationally-renowned unmitigated gall, released a statement "denying that its product disables RealPlayer." Despite the fact, of course, that the whole committee had just seen it happen.
But as if that all weren't entertaining enough, Microsoft (who wasn't even actually present at the proceedings) obliged by injecting a serious soap opera slant into the whole matter; shortly after Glaser's demonstration, one senator produced an affadavit from Microsoft executive Paul Maritz. It contained a sworn statement by Maritz claiming that Glaser had "promised not to testify" before Hatch's anti-Microsoft committee if "an agreement between the two companies" could be reached before the hearing was scheduled to start. Hmmm... Is Microsoft accusing RealNetworks of deliberately sabotaging their own product not to work after Windows Media Player is installed, in order to claim anticompetitive action on Microsoft's part? The plot thickens...
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 7/26/98 episode: July 26, 1998: More companies line up to complain about Microsoft's anticompetitive strategies, and this time it's RealNetworks taking the stand. Meanwhile, Apple assures its customers that the supply of current Power Macs will remain strong even as they prepare for the Power Mac G3 II, and did Apple conspire to crush the magazine formerly known as MacWEEK?...
Other scenes from that episode: 887: Put 'Em in the Vault (7/26/98) Recent speculation of a serious G3 shortage in the coming months would appear to be unfounded, at least if Apple is to be believed. According to a MacWEEK article, Apple spokeswoman Nathalie Welch officially pronounces that Apple "foresees no shortage" of desktop systems in the near future, even if those August 1st price cuts increase demand. The article also states that only three desktop models are in production right now, one each in flavors of 233, 266, and 300 MHz... 888: Means to an End (7/26/98) So, did Apple really conspire to force MacWEEK to change its focus? That's the question put forth in a recent WIRED News article. Conspiracy theorists the world over whisper that Apple was hacked off one too many times by the weekly Mac publication, who frequently ran high-profile stories revealing information about Apple projects that Apple wanted kept under wraps...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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