Microsoft Case Slogs Forward

jchristopher writes "The government asked an appeals court to issue an order moving the Microsoft case back to the trial court as soon as possible today. According to this Cnet article, such an order could hint at an injunction blocking the distribution of Microsoft's Windows XP. "

Comments

Re:Windows XP being blocked?

[nathanm]

Great, there goes every single bit of hope that the PC industry may recover in Q4.

This is exactly why Microsoft should be punished severely, when an entire sector of the economy revolves around a single company. People aren't buying the latest & greatest PCs because they're major overkill for most peoples' needs and they can get by with year or two old ones. Just because a single company releases some resource intensive (hog) software shouldn't force people to upgrade their computers.

Re:Given the Bush Administration

[PRickard]

rknop typed: Indeed, there are lots of pro business folks out there who believe that business in the computer industry would do a whole lot better without the bullying monopolistic tactics of Microsoft.

Thank you! I'm glad someone besides me finally said that. I am extremely pro-business and extremely conservative, but I've spent the last five years now working on The Microsoft Boycott Campaign. Look how many conservatives are working with Ms opposition groups. Bob Dole and Robert Bork?? AND Ralph Nader. Considering that, who can still actually believe only liberal anti-business people oppose The Behemoth? Microsoft is a threat to you no matter where you are politically - a company that doesn't care about consumers or competition one bit. It's like cancer or some other deadly disease - you don't have to have any certain political viewpoint to be against it.

New OS means new PC sales??

[MongooseCN]

PC makers have identified XP as a key factor for breathing new life into stalled PC sales.

"We are hoping for and preparing for a jump in the (PC sales) category with the launch of XP,"

Has the general computer using population been brainwashed into thinking they have to buy a new PC to run a new operating system?

Re:Given the Bush Administration

[rknop]

Given the Bush administration, and the perception that the administratioon is pro business, this is an interesting development, bound to put the MS drawers into a twist.

While I'm not speaking specifically with regard to the Bush Administration's position, in general it is a poor assumption to equate "pro business" with "pro Microsoft." Indeed, there are lots of pro business folks out there who believe that business in the computer industry would do a whole lot better without the bullying monopolistic tactics of Microsoft.

-Rob

Look on the bright side...

[waytoomuchcoffee]

It would give them time to work on SP1.

I'm torn on this...

[bryan1945]

As a capitalist kinda guy, I don't mind a company leveraging their strengths. As a tech guy, I dislike how MS has forced various stuff down consumers' throats.

What I really, really HATE, though, is the complete buy-in of corporate IT/IS drones into MS. As a co-worker likes to tell me, MS was good at one point to solidify standards (back in the '80s). But we have progressed now to the point where we have standards bodies who can give us standards. For example, MS XP will be the first MS OS with an OSI standard TCP/IP stack? This took how many years? Also, all these corporate wankers deciding that MS is the best route? Come on, has there been a study where the MS OS route has resulted in a lower cost for support. Not that I've seen.

Overall, I don't really blame MS, I (now) blame all the lemmings who follow "the group" when it comes to anything relating to computers.