Sure, Gersh. That tirade is no different than what we've been hearing from the DOJ: There is an assumption of guilt with respect to Microsoft beating Netscape.
As for Either way, Microsoft has NOT heard the last of Netscape. Netscape has a billion-dollar plus antitrust claim against Microsoft and, in due course, that claim will be prosecuted.
Any yokel can claim to have a multi-trillion dollar complaint, and they can support this theory with all sorts of pie-in-the-sky assumptions and theories. The bottom line: The whole DOJ/Netscape claim centers around the assumption that Microsoft has killed Java. Java proponents were sure that Java, a language "which creates programs to run on any operating system" would have killed Microsoft, if Microsoft hadn't used predatory practices to kill it off or at least derail it so that it no longer represented a "clear and present danger".
The sad truth to all this hype is that Java is surprisingly weak right now. Contrary to Robert Bork's Friday May 22 WSJ column, in which he falsely stated that Java runs on any OS, there is in fact no Java client which runs on any OS.
So you see Gersh, these seemingly small but serious failings in the central premise to the DOJ/NSCP case are what will be looked at under a microscope when the case moves to trial.
Further, even IF Java DOES run under any OS, it is quite speculative to say that JAVA would now be the dominant OS, if it were not for the predatory actions of Microsoft. Which leads me to my last point -- Isn't it ironic that Microsoft is being vilified for the same thing (having a popular OS) that Sun and Netscape are so desparately and transparently seeking?
I wonder if our great and fair DOJ will be prosecuting Sun/Netscape, when and if JAVA supplants and renders useless the Microsoft OS. Something tells me no. |
