In case you’d forgotten, 1995 was the Year That Microsoft Launched The Greatest Software Ever Written, or as we mortals know it, Windows 95 (or from Bill’s point of view, the more accurate ‘Win’ 95). It was also the year that Andy Martin launched his seemingly one-man campaign to derail the runaway Windows 95 train. It was back in March of that year that Andy, a Florida public interest lawyer and adjunct professor of law, held a press conference in Washington to announce the formation of a new consumer pressure group, the Committee to Fight Microsoft. Martin also disclosed plans to petition the US Court of Appeals to intervene against Microsoft in the then-pending appeals by Microsoft and the Justice Department over Judge Sporkin’s ruling.
The greatest consumer fraud in history
More details of Mr Martin’s quest emerged in June, when he started mailing fraud complaints to the attorney generals of all 50 US states, seeking to have them ban the sale of Windows 95 on the grounds that it wouldn’t work as advertised. We believe that Windows 95 could become the greatest consumer fraud in history if it is not stopped by regulatory authorities, thundered the Ralph Nader of the desktop. (Martin later said, er, precisely one of the fifty had gone ahead and contacted Microsoft about the allegations.) Martin’s position was based on the contention that Windows 95 was being designed to run on machines with 4Mbs of memory, when all evidence suggested it had difficulty in doing much that is useful in less than 8Mb. Tens of millions of consumers will be inveigled into paying billions of dollars for this functionally defective product, declared Mr Martin. The financial reality is that Microsoft has convinced Wall Street that it is going to sell tens of millions of copies of this product to existing consumers. They obviously can’t sell tens of millions of copies right away only to buyers of new machines. Thus, Microsoft’s duplicity reflects financial as well as technological fraud. Martin decided August 14th 1995 would be the beginning of what he hoped was going to be a worldwide boycott of the operating system: in New York in July he told reporters that he would drum up support by publicizing his anti- Microsoft complaints over the internet. He also said he would begin lobbying personal computer makers about what he saw as the prevalence of under-powered machines. And indeed on Windows 95 Day, August 24th, he was to be found picketing J&R Music World in New York City with a sign saying Just Say No to Windows. Later he claimed to have caused a police storm involving all of ten of New York’s Finest (and a sergeant!) when he refused to leave the sidewalk in front of the store. The officers apparently put up barricades to prevent the crowd trampling him down in their rush to buy the product. Far from deterred, in September, according to PC Week, he was to be found dunking a copy of Windows 95 into an old commode in front of the Orlando courthouse. He mixed in a few broken window panes and set the mixture on fire to portray the software holocaust created by the RAM hungry monster. Later, Andy extended his crusade to include the National Broadcasting Company, NBC. NBC first came to his attention when it broadcast an hour-long special on Billy Boy Gates. NBC later allegedly spiked Martin’s own scheduled appearance on an August 24th talk show along, he hissed, with all the other anti-Microsoft segments. Andy all along claimed to be free of industry taint and to be looking out for the consumer and ordinary citizen. The Department of Justice, he said to anyone listening, had not done its job and had been hornswaggled by Microsoft. One problem was that Andy was never too forthcoming on exactly who was on his Committee: some giggled that it was made up of a bunch of patent lawyers with some free time. Microsoft dismissed them all as merely a small group of extremists. (Well, so were the American colonists, according to George III…).
Cruise Missile
Back in 1995 it looked as if Andy Martin had had about as much impact on Microsoft as soft rain on a cruise missile’s flight path, but what the hell; he had the guts to make a fool of himself saying what a lot of us knew to be quite true. A true case of the cheeky youth pointing at the fat Emperor displaying his new finery – only in this case, the procession proceeded calmly on, despite his shrieks. Until recently that is. After the huge success of Windows 95, things went deathly quiet at the Committee to Fight Microsoft. Now of course, Martin is the least of Microsoft’s worries. Indeed Martin would now find it hard to raise his voice loud enough to be heard above the rest of the company’s enemies. Still, he’s going to try. Martin, now a candidate for United States Senator from Florida, is holding a press conference today (Thursday) on the sidewalk outside 342 E 67th Street in New York at 11am. There he plans to announce that the Committee to Fight Microsoft is establishing an international War Room intended to spearhead anti-Microsoft litigation activity and to protect computer consumers worldwide. Martin now styles himself the founding father of the anti-Microsoft movement, and thunders: Events have proved me right. How sweet it is to see what has flowered from our efforts. The War Room, he says, will act as an international clearing house to fight Microsoft. And it’s not all over with yet, by any means. June 25th looks as if it will be the date Martin brushes the dust off his old placards. We will soon be announcing new steps to fight Windows 98 he says. The war against Microsoft is just beginning.
This article is an updated version of a piece by Gary Flood, which originally appeared in Software Futures.
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