Well, the softy side is having some fun today. However, it is all ado about not much.
There have been rulings before, pro and con. The appeals court still has two out of three very pro-Microsoft judges on it, but the appeals court does not always have the final say, and as Dan has pointed out, they were only ruling on some of the older and smaller issues.
These issues were also moot, as the DOJ did not attempt, in the end, to keep MSFT from bundling IE and Win98. Probably they anticipated this result, and needed to move on to the main case.
A win for MSFT? This last stage made Bill and company an object of scorn, the target of cream pies and late night humor. In modern legal wars, this is how you soften up the target before bringing in the troops. Look back on the last few months in total, and I think the DOJ has done quite well.
They are, after all, up against a man who has more money than all the DOJ lawyers put together ever will. Not an easy target. It will take time, and is hardly a guaranteed success.
Have a nice day,
Chaz
P.S. to John - You don't get it. MSFT wants to be the road, the car, and anything carried in the car. They want it all. If they win this case, they are possibly going to get it all, too. They want to vend all the applications, charge you for logging in, determine who can ship computers, sell you airline tickets, sell you insurance, sell you banking, sell you satellite bandwidth, determine what your news will be, what your encyclopedia will say, make your movies, control your TV cable, and sell you cars (literally, right now.) The reason all the other (smaller, but still important) heavy hitters are lining up against Bill is because he is threatening anyone and everyone with being put out of business.
He is surrounding himself with powerful enemies, the exceptions being MSFT shareholders. Time will tell if this is wise. |
