Mac Scope

The Growing Microsoft Empire

Stephen Van Esch - Oct. 25, 2000

Microsoft to the rescue again!

Corel, a company that has had its fair share of "beleaguered" articles, has been hauled from the brink by its most hated enemy, Microsoft.

Embrace and extend, with an emphasis on embrace.

Let's look at what happened when Microsoft last pulled this.

Microsoft rode to the rescue of Apple in 1997, offering a big chunk of cash in exchange for Internet Explorer on the desktop and Apple dropping several unnamed lawsuits. Kiss and make up. You said "uncle," now do what I say.

Currently, Apple remains on good terms with Microsoft. Microsoft, without a doubt, turns out pretty good products. IE is not the worst browser on the market, and Office makes sure that no one in the business world has to know that you (horror of horrors) use a Mac.

So now that one enemy is down and happily bowing before the Microsoft altar, what's the next step? Go out and get another to cry "uncle."

Apple was definitely a worthy opponent; it surely made Bill Gates happy when he had to help out. If you look at the Corel deal, though, Gates gets much more than a large bite out of a small pie.

Currently, Corel is one of the corporate champions of Linux. Porting apps like mad and supporting Linux upstarts like Rebel.com. Corel will undoubtedly be in charge of placing .NET onto the Linux platform.

Nice and neat, you see? No need for Microsoft to get messy with open-source, just hire (or bribe) a stooge to take the fall for you. Microsoft gets into the Linux action without putting its family jewels on the line. All part of the master plan.

Fast forward to now.

What is Apple's relationship with Microsoft?

Muted support would be the best way of putting it. No one complains too much about the heavy handedness of Microsoft. The hardest hitting anti-Microsoft diatribe was Avie Tevanian's testimony against Microsoft. Since then, not a peep. Support for the new versions of Explorer and, particularly, Office abound, however (as indicated in this article by Applelinks).

So, on the long road to world domination, Corel will likely be praising Microsoft and evangelizing the .NET strategy in two of three years time. Corel's battle cry to take the office suite battle to Microsoft will be but a hollow memory as everyone lines up to get their hands on Microsoft certified "open source" software.

Criticism of Microsoft, from within the ranks and the faithful followers, will be destroyed, and each new product from the Microsoft campus will be greeted with shouts of joy.

Of course, the icing on the cake is Corel porting all of its existing Mac apps over to .NET as well. Three operating systems all wrapped up and delivered to Bill.

All in a days work at Redmond.

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