John,
I am pro free competition, and hate the play of political power in the free market.
The free market is driven by the benefit of consumers, it is that which drive the competition, and advancement in technology, all these point to the benefit of consumers, which means better performance / price, and powerful but easy to use products. If DOJ wins this case, that means the end of free competitions, or the free market economy in the high tech industry. If DOJ wins, all hi tech companies will lose their freedom about what to develop, how to develop, and DOJ will tell you what you should develop, and you should not develop , the decision is not based on free market principals anymore, which means to benefit the consumers. I see this as a dangerous sign to the American high tech industry. We will again back to the 1970s of USSR, everything is controlled by the state, and this happens in the 1999 of US market . It is very ironic. If MSFT loses this case, it means the end of Microsoft, because it can no longer has the right and freedom given by the constitution to develop its own product, it will be all controlled by the government.
If a company has a monopoly in a special product, that means the company's position in that market is not vulnerable , but the fact did not indicate that. We heard all the time from the Microsoft haters that Linux is better than Window, Solaris is better than window and will replace window eventually. We heard that Sunw's Java + Navigator will replace window ...etc, this to me, means Microsoft did not have a monopoly in the OS market, because Window can be replaced overnight by other technology.
If DOJ wins this case, that means all companies which can not compete in the free market will cry to the DOJ to use the political power to get what they can not get through the process of free market and free competition. Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystem, NSCP will have piles of suits against them, and that means the the rule of free market , free competition , innovation will not work anymore.
That is really the end of US high Tech industry.
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