Scheer on AOL and Microsoft

I am dumbfounded that Robert Scheer (Commentary, May 26) offers a comparison of Microsoft Windows and America Online as though such a comparison were logical. Windows is a computer operating system, not a piece of entertainment software that users can choose to use or ignore.

The problem is this: Windows, the operating system, can be (and has been) set up to feature proprietary products at the expense of competitors. America Online can be set up in lots of ways, but the computer itself is not dependent on AOL to run. PCs are dependent on Windows. How do you spell “conflict of interest”?

I won’t dispute Scheer’s concern about AOL’s burgeoning power, however. And he is right about Microsoft in this one respect: Bill Gates is totally inept at controlling our thoughts.

SANDRA SUTHERLAND

Encinitas

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I feel that Scheer might be missing something when he refers to Microsoft as a “paper tiger” in regard to Gates’ attempts to control our lives. Microsoft is in a position where it matters less how well it can compete and more in its abilities to exert overwhelming pressure on companies to see the world through the Gates paradigm. Scheer doesn’t “fear Gates because he’s proved totally inept at controlling our thoughts,” but that is the precise reason I have some concerns.

Gates and Microsoft have a virtual blank check to position the public so that Microsoft’s “ineptness” might become our only logical choice. It’s analogous to having a giant gorilla sitting in the driver’s seat of a bus. If the gorilla doesn’t move, guess who’s driving the bus.

DAVID SHEA

Wrightwood