Foreign Computer Software

[Sake Samurai]

Are there any big software companies outside of the United States? In particular, I mean companies writing OS software, Internet browsers, state-of-the-art games & word processing.

Does MS really have a world-wide monopoly?

Yes, really.

In word processing software, PC OS, yes, MS is a monopoly.

Veera.

[Arnold Winkelried]

Most software companies are based in the USA, but there are many important software companies in other countries also.

In the business world, SAP AG (http://www.sap-ag.de/) is the market leader for enterprise management.

A popular reporting tool for businesess ic made by a french company called Business Objects (http://www.businessobjects.com/).

Those are just two examples I can think of offhand.

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J'ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine.
Henri B. Stendhal

[Akatsukami]

veera13 writes:In word processing software, PC OS, yes, MS is a monopoly.
Not true. There's also Word Pro (f/k/a Ami Pro), Word Perfect, and a number of WPs that don't even run on Wintel boxes. Likewise, there're Linux and other OSs for Intel, and even non-Intel PCs (you may have heard of this start-up called "Apple").


You may think that Microsoft has a monopoly on software. Bill Gates may think so, too, although Microsoft's actions don't support that notion. But thinking so doesn't make it so, and a lot of people don't even think so.



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"Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away."

[Sam Stone]

Canada has many large software firms. Corel, for example. Canada has a huge share of the video card market (ATI and Matrox are both Canadian).

A lot of world-class games have come from Canada as well (Baldur's Gate was developed here in Edmonton).

[tanstaafl]

Corel (Canada) has WordPerfect.

I use Opera, which is a browser from Norway.

Linux is originally from Finland.

A lot of games come from Europe and Japan. SquareSoft (Final Fantasy, anyone?) is from Japan for example. The differance here is that many European designs are released in the US by US companies under their name.

There is quite a bit of software development outside the US. Microsoft would probably prefer you forgot that though.

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"Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China."

Dennis Matheson --- dennis@mountaindiver.com
Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb --- www.mountaindiver.com (http://www.mountaindiver.com)

[Sake Samurai]

Thanks -

Is the browser Opera basically identical to NS and IE? It wouldn't surprise me if it was better.

Scandanavian countries seem to always be pushing the envelope of technology (e.g., wireless communications). I'm very surprised there isn't serious foreign competion to MS by now.

I suppose I shouldn't have mentioned gaming software - I'm aware that there are dozens of companies out there writing better games than MS Age of Empire & MS Flight Simulator.

[Undead Dude]

It is true that MS is not truly a monopoly, however, MS has sufficient market share to extert monopoly-like power.

[tanstaafl]

Is the browser Opera basically identical to NS and IE? It wouldn't surprise me if it was better.

I like it; it has a smaller memory and disk footprint than either Netscape or IE. It's similar in many ways but after all there are only so many ways to design a browser. One feature I like is the ability to have multiple web pages open on multiple sites within the same application. (Netscape and IE both want to run multiple copies of themselves in order to have multiple pages active.) They're also working on a Linux port (which I'm waiting on).
On the down side it does sometimes have problems with pages which depart from the HTML standards too much which Netscape and IE are able to handle.

Their web site is at www.operasoftware.com (http://www.operasoftware.com) if you are interested in giving it a look.

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"Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China."

Dennis Matheson --- dennis@mountaindiver.com
Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb --- www.mountaindiver.com (http://www.mountaindiver.com)

[torq]

Corel owns WordPerfect NOW, but WordPerfect used to be published by a company based in Utah. So it's not really "foreign" software so much as "expatriated" software.

[Momotaro]

Wasn't the software for the dinosaur animations in Jurassic Park from a company in Montréal or Toronto?

[ookpik]

Yup. Softimage in Lachine, Quebec...Now owned by MS of course.