SiliconValley.com: Microsoft says it doesn’t expect objections to delay Windows XP. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer accused America Online of “limiting the marketplace” by insisting that computer manufacturers delete new Microsoft Internet features from its Windows XP operating system.
So this is the new line from Microsoft, a company that has done more than any other to limit choice in computing. You have to wonder if Ballmer was laughing inwardly as he said this.
Probably not. Redmond is pretty much an Irony-Free Zone, at least among the Microsoft leadership.
For Ballmer and Gates and their lieutenants, competition in the PC industry exists solely within the confines of the Microsoft empire. PC makers are permitted to offer Microsoft Windows machines with ever-so-slight tweaks of the hardware configuration. And other software companies battle it out for the relative crumbs Microsoft leaves on the table.