Okay, the deal is, Microsoft pressured DEC into suing Intel so that
Intel would strike back with anti-competitive behavior, such as no
longer supplying prototype chips to DEC and even threatening to not sell
released chips to DEC. The goal of getting Intel to act in this
anti-competitive manner is to grab the attention of Gary Reback, the
Justice Department, the FTC, etc., pulling their attention away from
Microsoft.
When Microsoft first started pressuring DEC to sue Intel, DEC said no
way - they recognized how risky it was. That's why Microsoft started
getting so friendly with HP recently, letting DEC know that Microsoft
doesn't need them. If DEC had dragged its feet much longer, Microsoft
would have had to unveil the super-secret NT port to the PA-RISC. (This
would be the stick corresponding to the carrot of the Alpha being the
only NT-supported RISC chip now, given that PowerPC and MIPS have both
been dropped.)
- Joe
PS. This letter is a forgery, composed by a Novell employee and somehow
made to look as if it were sent from Microsoft.
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert S. Thau [SMTP:rst@ai.mit.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 1997 11:16 AM
To: Joe Barrera
Cc: FoRK
Subject: where did all the anti-MSFT conspiracy theorists
go?
Joe Barrera writes:
> Someone should post the obvious explanation of what's behind
the
> DEC-Intel thing.
I'm sorry, Joe, but you have to understand that we here,
critical
though we may be, are actually *less* familiar with Microsoft's
conspiratorial behavior than someone like you who's gotten to
see it
up close and personal, so perhaps some things aren't as obvious
to us
they ought to be.
So what is the obvious explanation?
rst