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Microsoft, DoJ Reach Tentative Settlement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sent-to-bed-without-dinner dept.

JeffMagnus writes: "MSNBC is reporting that the tentative settlement between Microsoft and the DoJ calls for a five-year consent decree between the government and Microsoft governing the company's conduct. A three person panel of independent experts will be created to review the companys' future activity." The New York Times appears to be the original source for the settlement stories; there's also an AP article.

3 of 595 comments (clear)

  1. Let's not forget by vanguard · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    An industry trade group that has been critical of Microsoft's business practices accused the Bush administration of "selling out" by seeking weak penalties.

    Americans let's remember this when it's time to vote again in a few years. Bush, more so than any administration I can remember, is for sale. He's too close to the business and too far from the people. Finally, he doesn't understand the issues.

    This isn't meant to be flamebait. Heck, I voted for him (sorry about that). I'm just saying it would be foolish to fail to consider that he instructed to courts to back down when it's time to vote again.

    --
    That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
    1. Re:Let's not forget by BrookHarty · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Lets not for get Bushs father's last minute pardons, lets not forget Ronald Regan giving 3 billion to the taliban (opps, CIA's freedom fighters against russia)

  2. There should be no punishment! by Jagasian · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    Punishment will only hurt the industry... it will only cause damage. I think that the DOJ should fix the problem, not punish companies. The absolute undeniable way to fix the problem would be to force Microsoft to maintain open, free, and current documentation for just 3 things:
    1. File Formats: For example, Office formats are the most important (so that other products can open them), but also formats for MS executables (so that other products can execute them), MS shared libraries (so other products know how to load them), and media file formats.
    2. Protocols: Other products should be able to be built to be networkable with MS products.
    3. APIs: This would greatly help projects like WINE, but it would also help 3rd party versions of Visual Basic and other dev kits.

    No need to break up Microsoft. No need to take money from them. No need to force them to give up all of their intellectual property by forcing them to open source their products. These solutions are either too extreme or they just wouldn't help the situation. However, forced FREE and OPEN documentation would absolutely solve the problem. KOffice would quickly become MSOffice compatible. WINE would work correctly %100 of the time. Visual Basic apps could be compiled for Linux. Konquerer would be able to correctly render net sites made for IE. All we need is documentation... no fighting, no breaking, no stealing... just documentation.