Quotes by Dwight Davis

“Microsoft is being quite cautious in trying not to look opportunistic with [year 2000]. Theyre worried there will be a backlash.”

“I wouldnt be surprised to see anything at this point; this is the Wild West in terms of licensing models, ... Everyone is looking for models right now.”

“It does a very hard thing: it makes Microsoft a sympathetic character.”

“I really just see it as a placeholder, its really not all that important.”

“It comes out at sort of this strange time in the companys product evolution, the last gasp of the DOS line and Windows 98.”

“Interestingly, it sort of raises some of the issues about Microsoft bundling features into the operating system, which of course has been core to the whole antitrust issue.”

“[Until the release of J2EE 1.4] you have a situation where Java developers have to work in potentially non-standard ways to support Web services, which isnt necessarily a terrible thing if youre working with one of the major vendors tools suites like IBM, Sun, or Oracle.”

“Thats where theyre stepping up to the plate and saying, We at Microsoft are going to get more involved in the top-end, mission-critical [support] available from partners, be it HP or whoever.”

“Theyre taking a more intimate role, and not depending solely on partners to give that support. It is a response to backlash from customers who wanted Microsoft to have more of a role there, to stand as the ultimate backstop for support.”

“The perception among a lot of customers is that nobody understands Microsoft products like Microsoft. Many of them want the security of that direct relationship with Microsoft.”