Dan, I'm going to say Jesse is wrong here, at least from the point of view of what is in the best interest of Microsoft.
The dispute with Microsoft is over their business model -- not some single piece of software, like the OS or the browser. In my view, the government is filing this lawsuit because it wants to destroy their business model. These pieces of software are merely "instances" of the overall model. Negotiating with the government over what they were discussing is simply slow motion death by regulation, contract by exclusionary contract, product by "free"/OS-integrated product.
Negotiating over a breakup would, to me, make sense, but Microsoft obviously doesn't want to go there (even though that's where they are going to end up anyway, IMHO). Given that, and given Microsoft's (wrong) perception that they can win this lawsuit, taking a chance and going to court makes more sense than certain, slow motion death by negotiation and regulation.
Some battles just have to be fought. Jesse's views notwithstanding, this is one of them. |
