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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (23665)	11/23/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: RTev	Respond to of 24154

The one thing that crosses my mind that actually might do some good would be to split Win9x and NT into different companies... I agree. It's the only structural remedy that is both workable and that has some chance of fixing the problem identified in the case. If the rumors coming out of Washington are accurate (which is far from assured), this doesn't seem to be under serious consideration. That's too bad. The code-auction solution supposedly addresses this same issue, but it would be far less workable. One of the major problems is that there doesn't seem to be a company out there that's willing to bid in such a scheme. The problem would be overcome by a breakup-light in which Microsoft splits off a separate and independent company for consumer Windows. It could be set up somewhere in the Seattle area so that the teams that have worked on Windows don't have to move somewhere else, which would make it more likely that they'd stay with the new company. The "Windows" trademark could become the exclusive property of the new outfit, much as the "Bell" trademark was given to the RBOCs in the AT&T divestiture. (That was significant since the name "AT&T" hadn't been used in the company's marketing and was not familiar to consumers.) Is consumer Windows enough? Probably not. Microsoft has been trying vainly to kill off DOS for over a decade and for two or three years has been trying to replace consumer Windows with something more robust. The new company would start up with code that Microsoft has called inadequate and soon-to-be-orphaned. Perhaps they need an additional piece of Microsoft in order to compete successfully with the mother-company. Windows CE might be a good addition. It's appealing partly because -- as often happens at Microsoft -- there's already a partially competitive product within the company. Embedded NT is already being used by at least one settop box maker instead of CE. However it was organized, there would be huge problems in creating such a Windows company. However, most of those problems are even more severe with the auction option. The biggest issue lies in identifying who would get the bundled technologies that are parts of both consumer Windows and NT. Does OLE/ActiveX belong to NT or Windows? What about DirectX? Plug-and-Play? Jet? And what about IE? The cross-licensing that would be necessary between the two companies suggests that a third standards body might be necessary on the Bellcore model. Such an organization would actually solve other problems identified in this suit since it could be used to mediate standards issues raised by other players in the industry.