Microsoft Loses Delay Appeal

cheesethegreat was the first to submit that Microsoft has lost their appeal to delay their case by requesting a review with the Supreme Court. We mentioned the appeal a few weeks ago. The link doesn't say much more than that the appeals court denied the delay.

Comments

Personal opinion.

[styopa]

What I personally think would be the best solution is as such.

• Most importantly is that one needs to allow for choice. If MS wants to integrate a web browser, mail utility, isp, etc..., let them, but allow for choice. If they want to integrate then they must release all information on how the integration is done, and allow for third parties to replace the MS component with their own, seamlessly. Ie, if someone, or an OEM, wants Eudora instead of Outlook, then they should be able to completely replace Outlook with Eudora and not lose ANY productivity/compatibilty. Third party products should have the ability to merge seamless into MS products. Merging isn't always bad.
  
  1. Nautilus and Mozilla. Sure it is slow, but it also has a lot of potential.
     
  2. Any flavor of UNIX or Linux requires that a mail program be installed. They don't have to be set up, but they have to be installed.
     
  
  Other things that I feel should be done are.
  
• Force MS to release all of the APIs. Have a group of coders from third parties review MSs source code to insure that all of the APIs have in fact been released. Until they give the okay no product leaves the door.
  
• All OEMs are treated the same. Same price for OS, all given the OS on the same day. If an OEM wishes to us the OS, MS cannot refuse even if the OEM is also shipping other OSes. Deals must be made in the open.
  
• Office products, MS Office, Internet Explorer... must be released for all the OSes that it will support at the same time. Must include support for other OSes other than Windows and MacOS. Including either a Linux or a major UNIX faction (Sun, IBM, etc...).
  

Nobody suggested the simplest remedies...

[dpilot]

There have been several suggested remedies, like splitting Microsoft into N pieces, nuke the Redmond Campus, conduct remedies, etc.

But instead, quite simple:

To begin:

All COTS software used by the US government will exchange data in fully documented, non royalty encumbered formats. Only special-order software may use proprietary or secret formats, and special order software may not be used where the function exists in COTS equivalents.

All wired and wireless protocols used by the US government for public exchange of information will be fully documented and non royalty bearing. Exchange of secret data will be fully documented and non royalty bearing, but that information will be classified to the same secrecy level as the data, and also subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Microsoft Windows has achieved "utility" status in the PC marketplace. To that end:

All terms of all contracts regarding sales and licensing of Windows will be available for public scrutiny.

Contracts for sales and licensing may not contain terms that exclude competitors and potential comptitors, such as per-system or exclusive usage.

Simple, but effective. (IMHO)

Re:bold, idealistic and unworkable plan

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

It's like asking the government to fund a competitor to Bell Telephone when they owned vitually all the phones in the US. Not workable.

Except, of course, the government did. You're using it to send email, transfer files, or even read slashdot.

Of course it took a long time, and no one expected it quite to work that way, and it's not quite there yet...

The point is bundling

[MobyDisk]

Many Slashdotters seem to have missed the point of what this case was about. This case isn't about Microsoft Office, or Microsoft just being too big, or Microsoft not innovating, or their products sucking...

This is about bundling. Windows XP bundles replacements the top software of the past year, in an attempt to kill it. CD burners, audio players w/ plug-ins, audio/video codecs, web browsers. This is why they have monopoly power. See where realaudio, winamp, EZ CD Creator, DIVX, Netscape/Mozilla are in 3 years when everybody has XP. Why bother to buy/download those products?

Splitting MS into Office & Windows doesn't resolve it. The their apps, tools, utilities, and development software must be split apart.

So?

[Wind_Walker]

All the delay would have done was postpone the inveitable. As it is, there's going to be a long, drawn-out trial while Microsoft dances its lawyers around and circles the wagons, trying to protect the money that they fought so hard to earn.

A delay would have put this trial off by what, a couple of weeks? Wonderful. This trial, and mark my words, will last longer than the O.J. debacle. This will be a 3-year long trial, while Microsoft calls in experts, and the DoJ calls in rebuttal experts, on and on ad absurdium.

We're never going to see a just resolution to this, so what does it matter if they aren't delayed a few weeks?

Re:Hopefully...

[weave]

How about this? The federal government should stop being one of Microsoft's best customers.

Bill Gates makes everything clear (from CNNfn)

[ackthpt]

However, the court affirmed Judge Jackson's conclusions that Microsoft does have a monopoly in the market for computer operating systems and maintained that monopoly power by anticompetitive means which violated U.S. antitrust laws.

Then..

In a news conference Thursday afternoon, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said he was pleased with the ruling, which he claimed "removes the cloud of breakup from the company, reverses the tying claim and says clearly that we did not attempt to monopolize the browser market."

It's a wonder his nose hasn't grown a yard by now. Is anyone still unclear on _why_ Gates and Microsoft enjoy such a negative following on Slashdot?