Kollar-Kotelly Rejects MS Bid For 4-Month Delay

kalamazoo904 writes: "Off the Boston Globe and CNN newswires: Everyone's favorite convicted monopoly asked for more time to make up tall tales, but good Judge Kollar-Kotelly would have none of it. Penalty phase proceeds March 11 as planned."

Comments

Remedies

[gartogg]

"[The states] have asked Kollar-Kotelly to order Microsoft to sell a cheaper, stripped-down version of Windows..."
THANK YOU! All I need now is a worse version of windows. This "new" "stripped down version" will not contain many of the features of windows we have come to know and love: crashes, freezing, and it won't keep that old favorite, memory handling that requires more RAM than a 10-foot thick steel reinforced concrete doorway to dracula's castle. It will not include macros in outlook, buffer overflow vulnerabilities in uPNP, or even allow users to modify their settings in a way that will destroy their computer without a warning screen.

BUT there would be a upside to the remedy, including the fact that the new OS would cost less than a house (ok, less than a LARGE house) and will still run your computer. It may not allow you to access your files, but you will know they are safe. VERY safe. They are so safe that it will become uncertain if they even exist. It will have native support for high elvish, ojibwe, yoruba, aymara and, ever popular, frisian. These are the only languages it will support. Microsoft estimates that of the 87 people who speak one or more of these languages, 1 owns a computer. And he uses linux.

Consumers Must Speak Out Now

[Frank White]

American citizens have long valued the entrepreneurial spirit, and nowhere is this more apparent today than in the burgeoning computer industry. Many of today's most successful computer industry leaders started their own businesses. Bill Gates and a handful of other entrepreneurs have achieved spectacular fame and fortune, but there are countless other software engineers and hardware manufacturers who have developed successful small and mid-sized businesses. Competition among these businesses is the spark that ignites innovation in the computer industry, and it is innovation that brings real choice to consumers in the marketplace. But one company -- Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation -- has achieved such a dominant role in the global computer industry that it presents a serious threat to further competition, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Free market advocates are fond of blaming economic problems on government regulation, and they don't look kindly on government-regulated monopolies. But the real threat to a healthy economy is an unregulated monopoly. Microsoft's marketing strategy is aimed at controlling the market.

Largely as a result of the monopoly abuses of the early U.S. industrialists, American businesses are subject to a set of strong anti-trust laws, chiefly the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914. When these laws are enforced, monopoly practices can be curtailed, competition among entrepreneurs can flourish, and consumers can benefit from competitive choices in the marketplace.

Anti-trust laws aren't just intended to protect competitors from anti-competitive practices. These laws are also supposed to protect consumers! Everyone who uses a computer has a stake in maintaining a competitive computer industry. And you don't need to know any complicated economic theories to understand why. If one company controls the market, it sets the price, controls the quality and determines the availability of products. With a Microsoft monopoly, you can count on higher prices, lower quality, and more delays in new product roll-outs.

It's time for consumers to speak out, loud and clear, and demand that federal officials enforce the anti-trust laws. If they don't, there's a good chance Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation will take our choices away.