Bonum Certa Men Certa

Walt Mossberg and Bill Gates Know Each Other Well

And Microsoft compares OEMs to "delivery people"

Couple
'Independent' journalism



HAVING witnessed and come across journalists who develop relationships in Microsoft, with whom they coordinate their writings, it seems important to disclose and inform. Examples that are more familiar include Bloomberg's Dina Bass, Rob Enderle [1, 2], and Maureen O’Gara [1, 2].

“Buried among piles of evidence in the Comes vs Microsoft case (which Microsoft settled very quickly in order to hide the truth) we find the company's correspondence with Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg.”Buried among piles of evidence in the Comes vs Microsoft case (which Microsoft settled very quickly in order to hide the truth) we find the company's correspondence with Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. This is interesting for various reasons; the first is that Microsoft shamelessly compares companies like Dell and H-P to "delivery people", the second is that it shows a long-standing relationship between Gates and Mossberg and thirdly, as one of our readers put it, "Mossberg is just as much in Microsoft's pocket as Rob Guth [...] Mossberg has consistently bashed free software and completely missed the boat on investigating Microsoft wrongdoing. [...] His collusion in the name of convenience is an endorsement of corruption. The more "reasonable" he makes that endorsement seem, the more evil it is."

A partial summary of Walt Mossberg's merciless (and consistent) criticisms of everything Free software is already available and Exhibit plex0_2905 [PDF], which appears as plain text below, ought to leave the rest to readers' own judgment.




Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft - exhibit plex0_2905, as text








PLAINTIFF’S EXHIBIT

2905

Comes v. Microsoft

From: Brad Chase Sent: Friday, May 15. 1998 3:57 PM To: Walt Mossberg (E-mail); Bill Gates Cc: Brad Chase Subject: Windows 98

lets keep this discussion going a bit. we support choice and agree with your fundamental point there on how oems present windows. understand your view that says the best product should win and that we should let oems do their own shells. we do let oems ship their own shells today but they can’t boot up into them directly . the user has to select them say by clicking on a link the oem can add to the desktop or somewhere else we also let the oems do significant customization of windows that they can boot up into. finally oerms can add anything may want to on the windows desktop they can add navigator and they can even make it the default browser.

however. if corns can boot up into an alternative shell then what is Windows? we market and invest significant R@D into Windows and if anyone can change its initial UI then that impacts people's understanding of windows, in additions, it sets up a situation where our Competitors can try to replace Windows with their own UI and apis. again an oem could ship the these UIs and APIs today but it is aIot to ask us to have the users first boot and experience with Windows be. not Windows, but a competitive shell or OS.

take the wsj for example. you ship via delivery people. they are your oems. you have dominant share of the daily news market. what if the delivery people. could substitute someone’s else’s front page for your own and furthermore what if it was not even clear that it wasn’t the wsj? it content and design that makes the wsj. now you support choice and competition to but the wsj would not allow that for that matter may would not even allow the delivery boy to add vie NY Times business section to the inside of the WSJ. we, in essence, allow the equivalent, by allowing oems to add any icon to the desktop and even allowing navigator to be the default.

you night argue that people know the Windows UI so they can tell but many people don’t and besides we want to improve the UI over lime and that will mean changes so it will look differently.

walt we have become a leader but to innovate in windows includes the UI and while I understand your point of view on this I would contend that we are being asked to hold to a radically different standard then anyone else would ever be asked to be held to

—Original Message— From: Walt Mossberg [mailto: mossberg@swj.com] Sent: Friday, May 15. 1998 7:38 AM To: Bill Gates Cc: Brad Chase Subject: Re: Wndows9B Importance. High

Bill.

I was glad to have a dialog with you and Brad before I wrote my Win98 column. and I'm glad to have your views on now it came out. As you know, from the very first time we met back in 1991, I have invited you to let me know what you like and dislike. about what I write and nave extended the same invitation to others in the industry. I believe we in the media sometimes are too closed off from outside views, and I feel a responsibility to open myself to them, especially because Journal is a very influential platform and as a columnist rather man a reporter, I have great license to express opinions. Our exchanges did in fact have an impact on what I finally wrote.

On your conflict with the government I appreciate your sharing your views on it. As I've explained. I'm not up on all the details of the the situation because it hasn’t been my responsibility to cover it.

But I would observe, just as a personal view, that there’s a distinction between your retaining full ability to integrate innovative features into Windows — like the browser or, eventually, speech recognition — and tie wall of formal and informal business arrangements you typically have built around Windows to restrict how OEMs can present it to users. It seem to me there’d be nothing wrong with agreeing to let Compaq do its own shell or opening screen. Just like they once did in the Win 3.1 days. even though

MS-PCA1541608




they did it badly. I might Criticize these screens if they wore too marketing-oriented, just as I have criticized your own desktop channel bar for plastering ads on the user's desktop. But _in principle_ I see nothing wrong with it. Hell, somebody might even hit upon a simpler or better metaphor using HTML for the shell, just lite HP and then Compaq did a good thing for users by adding a hard-wired keyboard Internet button, which launches a browser and dialer.

I also really do think users benefit from choice, so a pre-load of Navigator would be fine, assuming Netscape can cut the deals This a no different from the common bundling of AOL, MSN and CompuServe on new machines. or from some OEM packages which include both Quicken and Money.

I think JIE, in both standalone form, and in the form of the ActiveX control, should be able to stand on its own quite well in the competitor with Navigator, even if both were available or some new PCs. And I thank Outlook Express is more than a match for Netscape Mail or Eudora as a POP/flMAP4 client

These are just my random thoughts, and I have no idea whether they are relevant to your current talks. I hope you can gain a settlement.

Walt Mossberg

=========================== Wait Mossberg Personal Technology Columnist The Wall Street Journal

—Original Message— From: Bill Gates <billg@MICROSOFT.com> To: Watt Mossberg <mossberg@wsj.dowjones.com> Dale: Thursday, May 14, 1998 7:29PM Subject RE: Windows98

Thanks for engaging with us on a discussion of Windows98 before your column came out. Brad and I were discussing just now that although we feel the article is not really as possible as we might have hoped for you followed your admirable approach of calling it exactly like your see it. Windows98's biggest impact will be problems that don't occur for the millions of people who get it on new machines or choose to upgrade but you right that it is not a vital upgrade. The peripheral makers and retails channel are not enthused about the product. I hope the "Update" feature can change how we distribute fixes and driver improvements. As always you were thoughtful and fair in your analysis even if you don't see it exactly the same way.

Our biggest problem with the government is the principle that us adding new features like the browser is a bad thing. So far they just aren't showing any willingness to accept the fact that the browser is not there just because it makes Netscape's life hard. This is the principle we can't give up on and they still haven't budged on it. It seems a crime to have a lawsuit because of this when the law and the consumer benefits are so clear.

The use the word "consumer choice" to talk about letting OEMs side the browser from the users. We got started down this path because they decided that most features of the OS could be separated out like the device drivers. Wordpad, the file viewers, the network stack and that maybe we wouldn't be able to package them into a single product. We always told them the browser was a bad place to start because the deletion breaks things but they were confused on that point. They thought the remove function actually deleted the browser which of course it did not -- only the invoker and some tiny ICW files. When the browser goes so do the browser APIs.

Having all the government resources against a company like this is mindblowing. I hope I get a change to get back to software before I see you next.

MS-PCA1 541609


Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
 
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster
It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital
Links for the day
Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis"
Links for the day
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day