Slashdot Mirror
Feds to Publish Public Comments on MS Settlement
Silas writes: "This AP Article notes that the government is going to be releasing the comments submitted by the public on the Microsoft anti-trust case. Highlight: 'Overall, the department said it received about 7,500 comments from people in favor of the settlement reached by the federal government and nine states, while 15,000 opposed it. Another 7,000 comments were dismissed as opinion, like "I hate Microsoft."' Apparently they have to publish and respond to each one." CNN is carrying the AP wire story as well.
There are WAY more ant-MS zealots than there were 5 years ago. WAY more.
The general public is not capable of producing "rational, well-formed" arguments about Microsoft because the general public does not have even a simple understanding of corporate law, business practices, or the way companies operate, legal or otherwise. All they know is MS is popular, and they hear people say meaningless things like "Microsoft has damaged innovation", so they hop on the bandwagon to seem smart and cool.
For instance, search around for the phrase "leverage their monopoly". 99% of the time, what the person describes is not leveraging their monopoly at all. People are just horribly ignorant on the subject, so they just toss around catch-phrases to try and make their unfounded point.