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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Hughes who wrote (16817)	1/27/1998 11:03:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Respond to of 24154

Chaz, Good points. I'm sure it's part of a rather large discussion on the role of government in regulating private enterprise. It doesn't seem to have too much trouble with telecommunications or semi-conductors manufacturers. The software business is a little different, because of the variability of the product, but it's a little difficult for me to believe that the DOJ lawyers were too stupid to figure out that if IE code was removed from Windows and that version of Windows no longer worked, that the solution was for MSFT go back and fix the Windows code so that it worked just as well without IE as it did with IE included. Is that level of understanding really a stretch for lawyers? I kind of doubt it. My opinion is that they didn't feel they had the firepower or the authority to "damage" a company in a material way by forcing them to recall a product or re-engineer it. Maybe the consent decree of 1995 was too vague to mandate such an action. The special investigator still has an opportunity to enforce such a separation with Windows 98, since the product has not yet been released. Ultimately, MSFT will have to be broken up into at least 2 separate operating companies: one that publishes the O/S and one that publishes applications. Otherwise, this charade will continue and fair trade will not exist in the PC industry. cheers, cherylw