Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft on Competition: “We Need to Create the Reputation for Problems and Incompatibilities to Undermine Confidence”

Angry girl



Summary: Microsoft is vandalising not only competing products of 'partners' but also their reputation

YESTERDAY we wrote about saboteurs and FUD against OS/2, showing that Microsoft may have even broken the law in order to advance its agenda. Today we deal with another court exhibit, Exhibit plex_5401 (1991) [PDF]. It may be old, but it was never made widely accessible to the public, so we share it here and explain how it relates to the present.



Brad Silverberg, one of Microsoft's most aggressive people (he said “cut those f*ckers off” when a company chose DR-DOS), is herein expressing and defining Microsoft FUD. Cameron Myhrvold, the brother of Microsoft's patent troll (Nathan Myhrvold), is in circulation as well and both are currently in Ignition Partners, which seemingly helped the hijack of Xen.

Watch what Silverberg writes:

>From bradsi Thu Oct 24 09:18:30 1991 To: samt Subject: Re: DR DOS, will they/won't they buy

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:16:23 1991

This is a very important point. We need to create the reputation for problems and incompatibilies to undermine confidence in drdos6; so people will make judgements against it without knowing details or fats. it's will be tricky to do; we should dig up as many user stories as possible. compare drdow6 to dos4; ibm has expereince will building bad/incompat dos's.

we should think how we can get this down. (done).


That sounds very clearly like a plan to misbehave. Further down it is also shown that "kathybe" invites these chaps to the OS/2 briefing. She says: "I have not heard back from you."

From kathybe Wed Oct 23 17:16:34 1991 To: adamwa alistair andys bobmu bradsi cameronm carls claraj davidt davidtu davidwo dwaynew ericfo gregl karlst kevine markclbobt nikim perttir randyk roberth stewc tycar vesas Cc: Corptech Subject: URGENT - Can You Come on 10/29? Date: Wed Oct 23 17:13:24 PDT 1991

You were invited to attend the rehearsal presentation of the OS/2 Issue Account District Briefings on 10/29. I have not heard back from you.

We need you to review these presentations to ensure that the info we are presenting to customers and the field is correct. We will be doing six (6) districts over the next eight weeks which covers 70


Yesterday we saw what kind of OS/2 presentations Steve Ballmer was giving. He put in an application which was specifically designed (by Microsoft) to crash OS/2 and ruin the demonstrations.

It's all something to bear in mind now that Microsoft is trying to prove ODF is broken. Microsoft was an IBM and OS/2 partner at this time of sabotage and FUD. Now it is pretending to be an ODF partner with IBM, Sun, Oracle, Google, Red Hat and so on. Needless to say, Microsoft is still badmouthing ODF behind the scenes and it is reducing ODF interoprability [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].




Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft - exhibit plex_5401, as text










Tim Brewer

>From timbr Thu Oct 17 17:47:17 1991 To: cameroom viktorg Cc: bradsi davidool jeffbe lisacr Subject: Lotus AMI Pro 2.00 wrongly shipped COMMDLG.DLL from 6/14/91... Date: Thu, 17 Oct 91 17:48:05 PDT

Hi Cameron and Viktor - Apparently, Lotus wrongly shipped COMMDLG with thier AMI Pro 2.00 product. They picked up the beta 1 COMMDLG which was NOT included in the list of files available for redistribution. We need to contact them, have them update to the beta 2 release of COMMDLG and notify their customer base that they need to upgrade COMMDLG or they may affect other software components that use COMMDLG.

We did not give them permission nor did they ask anyone here to include COMMDLG with AMI Pro 2.00. They also ship OLECLI and OLESVR from beta 1 which is fine.

This issue was broght to my attention because it is affecting OC/Windows. (JeffBe has more details if you want them)

Please look into this asap. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks, Tim Brewer

##################################################### 235 From garygi Wed Oct 23 16:49:21 1991 To: bradsi Subject: EMAIL auto_notify

Re: reg win users Received OK on Wed Oct 23 16:49

User Message follows --------------------

At Comdex until Friday 10/25.

##################################################### 236 From susanb Wed Oct 23 16:49:42 1991 To: bradsi Subject: EMAIL auto_notify

Re: reg win users Received OK on Wed Oct 23 16:49

User Message follows -------------------- A combination of jury duty, two European launch tours and some vacation time will keep me out of the office almost continuously until Noverber 11. I'll check in on email and by phone. Peggyk can reach me or forward your requests to the appropriate ebu manager. Or try one of the following: Malindaf for marketing issues Tomr for development issues Brucej or Arts for program management issues Rogersh for testing issues Betsyd for user ed issues.

##################################################### 237 From bradc Wed Oct 23 17:01:52 1991 To: bradsi Subject: RE: more on rom dos Date: Wed Oct 23 17:02:18 PDT 1991

great, thanks. I have already explained to him the difference, he gets confused b/c

the delivery vehicle to oems is called the rom addendum.

on another matter it appears that i have to go to monterey on sunday

b/c you and joachimk can't go to this phoenix thing. remember that

CONFIDENTIAL

MSC 00726592

MX 6164977 CONFIDENTIAL

Plaintiff's Exhibit 5401 Comes V. Microsoft

RBC 003451

you volunteered you or me? as i indicated b4, i don't want to go to

be honest and am very bummed. i am your very loyal gpm but would you mind if i asked you to checking with me first b4 volunteering me for travel?

brad2

>From bradsi Wed Oct 23 16:31:25 1991 To: bradc Subject: more on rom dos

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:31:07 1991

I spoke to paul sherer yesterday. he asked about apm and I told him we would be announcing it soon ; we'd comment fully then. He also had the impression it would ONLY work with rom dos.

##################################################### 238 From dennisad Wed Oct 23 17:03:54 1991 To: bradsi davidcol Subject: Re: ppt Date: Wed, 23 Oct 91 17:03:49 PDT

Yup. Already agreed with Dave that I would come up with the "migration sheet" for ppt.

##################################################### 239 From sami Wed Oct 23 17:04:18 1991 To: bradsi Subject: Re: DR DOS, Will they/won't they buy Date: Thu Oct 24 09:59:42 PDT 1991

Well ...

I hadn't exactly meant to put it across that way,

but ...

You hit the nail on the head.

>From bradsi Thu Oct 24 09:18:30 1991 To: samt Subject: Re: DR DOS, will they/won't they buy

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:16:23 1991

This is a very important point. We need to create the reputation for problems and incompatibilies to undermine confidence in drdos6; so people will make judgements against it without knowing details or fats. it's will be tricky to do; we should dig up as many user stories as possible. compare drdow6 to dos4; ibm has expereince will building bad/incompat dos's.

we should think how we can get this down. (done).

##################################################### 240 From bradc Wed Oct 23 17:08:59 1991 To: bradsi Subject: RE: FW: apm/ms-dos 5 rom update Date: Wed Oct 23 17:09:42 PDT 1991

yup,good point - this was meant to discuss rom dos only but the message could be confused.

we will check with ray.

MSC 00726593

MX 6164978 CONFIDENTIAL

RBC 003452

>From bradsi Wed Oct 23 16:30:13 1991 To: bradc Subject: FW: apm/ms-dos 5 rom update

Date: Wed Oct 23 16:29:55 1991

I don't understand this mail, brad. it doesn't say anything about file transfer. It amkes it seem like power manager ONLY works with ROM DOS. That's VERY confusing.

We should make it very clear that all the pieces work with DISK-BASED ms-dos too.

In addition, we should ask rayka where all the oem's are for rom dos? we got lots of rather nasty mail from him about our mistakes; i'd like to know where the customers are now.

##################################################### 241 From davidool Wed Oct 23 17:12:00 1991 To: bradsi Subject: XGA driver Date: Wed Oct 23 17:11:18 1991

Cool, sound like comdex is windex for real...that's GREAT! I started reading paul sherer's article, but didn't finish...hope to finish tonight.

Some ISVs and OEMs got the spec, I can find the exact list if thats important.

On the issue of what to ship, we have some talking to do. Disk space is looking pretty grim for adding much at all. Are we absolutely hardcore about not adding another disk. The AGFA guys were here today and talked about how many fonts are in PCL 5 printers. They claim 26.5 million fonts in printers, just counting CG Times and Universe. Shipping a TrueType version of those would certainly be great for a large % of Windows users.

See ya when you get back.

##################################################### 242 From viktorg Wed Oct 23 17:15:29 1991 To: cameronm timbr Cc: bradsi davidool jeffbe lisacr Subject: Re: Lotus AMI Pro 2.00 Wrongly shipped COMMDLG.DLL from Date: Wed, 23 Oct 91 17:13:18 PDT 6/14/91...

I'll give them a call tomorrow (Thursday.) FYI, I have experimented with this, and it does seem to overwrite a newer version of the DLL - ie, it left my beta II version of COMMDLG intact. If I'm correct (I will verify with Lotus,) than there should be no problem with OC/Win - let me know if you have different data (essentially, I need to determine the urgency/gravity of the problem, as AMI has shipped already.)

thx, viktor

##################################################### 243 From kathybe Wed Oct 23 17:16:34 1991 To: adamwa alistair andys bobmu bradsi cameronm carls claraj davidt davidtu davidwo dwaynew ericfo gregl karlst kevine markclbobt nikim perttir randyk roberth stewc tycar vesas Cc: Corptech Subject: URGENT - Can You Come on 10/29? Date: Wed Oct 23 17:13:24 PDT 1991

You were invited to attend the rehearsal presentation of the OS/2 Issue Account District Briefings on 10/29. I have not heard back from you.

We need you to review these presentations to ensure that the info we are presenting to customers and the field is correct. We will be doing six (6) districts over the next eight weeks which covers 70

MSC 00726594

MX 6164979 CONFIDENTIAL

RBC 003453



Credit: wallclimber and RCH.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The End of FOSSPost (fosspost.org), It Has become an LLM Slopfarm Like FOSSLinux
These sites will never get lucky with slop. These experiments always end badly.
 
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes Persist, EPO Management Tries to Give False Impression of "Happy Staff"
EPO is trying to broadcast to the world a totally phony image of itself
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Patience, LLM Chatbts Being Bad, and Unexpected Computer Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 22, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 22, 2026
Links 22/05/2026: Ebola Crisis and Samsung Averts a Walkout With Big Bonuses
Links for the day
Links 22/05/2026: Inflation Fears and Thailand Tightens Visa Rules for Tourists From Dozens of Nations
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Speaks of This Week's Discussion With the EPO's Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Amid Mass Strikes
The Central Staff Committee's outline (prepared in a rush) or the "flash report"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 84 Out of 200: New Legislation Against SLAPPs on the Way (After We Reached Out to Ministers)
They dealt with the matter individually too, but we won't share this in public, at least not at this time
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXX - Where Was "The Ethics and Compliance Team" When the Family of EPO President Campinos Was Caught Doing Cocaine?
It remains to be seen if national delegates will tolerate this in future meetings
Gemini Links 22/05/2026: Esperanto Music History, Suspicious Adoption of Signal, and Unauthorised LLM Slop in Code
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 21, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 21, 2026
Links 21/05/2026: "Declining America" and Why Slop 'Code' is Made to Fail
Links for the day
Techrights and Tux Machines Subjected to Cyberattacks for Several Weeks
In the past I spoke to the cybercrime unit of British Police. Maybe it's time to do so again.
The Register MS Has Become a 'Content' Farm Promoting Slop for Hostile Corporations
Now they call it "PARTNER CONTENT" - not "SPONSORED" - as if semantics make the difference
Latest Example of Widespread Fake Assertions (False News) About "Hey Hi"
The false narrative of "Hey Hi layoffs"
Links 21/05/2026: Facebook Rewarded With Tax Breaks to Destroy the Environment and Cause Global Warming, Shortages, Pollution; SpaceX (SPCX) Continues Losing Billions of Dollars
Links for the day
Codecs and Software Patents - Part VIII - GNU Audio/Video Team Has Chosen the AV1 Video Codec and It Explains Why (They've Researched Their Options)
AV1 video codec will be used to encode and share GNU videos online
Dr. Stallman Helps Establish Free Software Advocacy Outside the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Well
The ideals or principles of Free Software needn't be centralised or monopolised; they can be federated
22 Years of Tux Machines and a Community Stronger Than Ever Before
We've already received some feedback from the community and improved it accordingly
Microsoft Under Investigation for Breaches of Law in the UK
Just like the Microsofters
More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way (June and July 2026)
with or without PIPs
LWN Sponsored by the Linux Foundation (Monopolies)
We must be able to casually point this out
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXIX - European Patent Office (EPO) Tells Staff "Speaking up" is Good, But Not When the "Brother-in-law" of EPO's President Does Cocaine
Do we still have a functioning democracy and potent press?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 20, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Gemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories
Links for the dayGemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories