Word: users
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...desperate are programmers for a stable computer standard that they will latch on to the first one that works-whether or not it is the best. A case in point, says Arthur, is ms-dos. "Microsoft dos for any serious user is a crummy operating system," he says. "But Microsoft got there first and played its market advantages extremely intelligently...
...links that bind users to Microsoft software run deep-down to the level of "plumbing" invisible to the user but of critical importance to the programmer. For example, Microsoft has for several years been using a tool called ole (for object linking and embedding) that makes it easier for users to move information from one Windows application to another-to shuttle an expense report from a spreadsheet to a word-processing document, for example. Apple is developing a competing system, called OpenDoc, that is supposed to run equally well on Windows, Mac and IBM's OS/2. But if a programmer...
...into online services, for example-waiting until there was a clear market opportunity before swooping in. Now Microsoft is starting to do its own basic research, spending $600 million a year trying to build computer systems that can see, hear and understand ordinary English and anticipate a user's needs...
...bedroom contained fat stacks of glittering hologram stickers -- laser-produced, three-dimensional images that are supposed to guarantee the authenticity of store-bought software. The third bedroom held boxes of stolen computer chips, worth more per ounce than crack cocaine. And in the living room piles of fake Microsoft user's guides spilled from open cartons...
...high cost of software comes from the years spent inventing it, not from the plastic and paper on which it is distributed. The full-service operation cracked last week, for instance, copied the disks, tagged them with holograms, and packaged them in shrink-wrapped boxes that included facsimiles of user's guides. Cost to the pirates: roughly $6 a unit. But each box would sell for as much as $200 to an unwitting-or unscrupulous-dealer...