This would be a rather unfortunate occurance. Microsoft is definitely a problem, but I don't think this is the way to handle them. They are a member of the Dow Industrial Index, their OS still is THE mainstream OS, Microsoft Word still sets the standard among word processors, and don't forget, they consolidated most of the PC world with a standard, albeit not a perfect one, but a standard nonetheless. That said, I am not, nor will ever be a M$ loyalist, in case anyone is wondering:o). I grant you, breaking up the company into 3 parts will force the parts to compete more vigorously. Consider an alternative scenario, hypothetically. Penalize M$, severely, make them pay heavy calculated damages to Caldera, Sun, IBM (I don't know if they also sued, but where is OS/2?), Netscape/AOL (I know..Aol doesn't need the money), and who ever else they have harmed. I mean heavy fines, ongoing. They listed 'Linux' as a competing OS in legal documents. Fine, let them then support the competition, as IBM (a legal trust), already does. They should either heavily and monetarily support, (although not have any control whatsoever over) a few of the free, non-commercially funded Linux projects, like Slackware (my personal preference;o) or Debian (albeit VA Linux and Corel are throwing their weight behind it, its still a free project I believe), or, they can become distributors of their own distribution, and support it with resources similar to the support they give Windows (I know ppl. groan at M$ Linux, but why not? If you can't beat us, join us;o) Why Linux and not another OS, like a bsd, or Solaris? First of all, Linux is best positioned at this time and place, bsd's and solaris outstrip linux server side, while Linux rips them on the desktop. (Please, this is my subjective opinion, no lame flames, stay on topic) Secondly, M$ did list them as a competitor in some anti-trust document, I remember reading that on The Register. BeOS is also another 'competitor' that merits financial support from M$, being as the nature of an anti-trust suit stipulates that the offender has suppressed new technology through unfair market manipulation, BeOS and Linux qualify as new innovations worth M$ penalty funding. If they don't want to compete with anyone else, make them divide their resources and compete with themselves. I think that if they are allowed to remain one company, but are SEVERELY penalized, it would be a faster resolution, a fairer resolution (for this to work they would need to be monetarily penalized in the range of the billions of $$'s, because it is ill-begotten gain), and it would be better for our economy, as well as the worlds economy. I may not personally like them, but how will it help anything if they are penalized in such manner that would degrade their service to their other customers? Most of whom couldn't care less about software wars, but would be hurt anyway. I must admit, a breakup would be gratifying though. They need to be reborn, as AT&T, and IBM were, because there is alot of ideas and innovations on their side, even if they have been hiding it behind millions of lines of buggy code. Their office software is standard setting, their OS is still the most widely used. Even their 'contributions' to java, were eventually included into an open-source implementation of java whose name escapes me now. M$'s actions have harmed us all, we know that, DoJ knows that. But lets not do more damage to ourselves or others in penalizing them. A breakup will be fought by Microsoft in court, vigorously for years, providing much hoopla, instead of amicably settling this, by allowing them to remain whole, but cutting in on Uncle Bill's paycheck. I think both sides could begin to work on the basis of keeping them together, but seriously downsizing them, in what is already a historical case. I don't know if this idea will be popular, but I hope it'd be well received, and if I err, I hope it is to the side of mercy, not for their sake, but for the greater cosmopolitan good. P.S.: What OS ran your first PC? Mine was a TandyRL1000, but I didn't begin to learn anything really until I got a wintel machine at 9. Just a thought. P.P.S: Sorry about the long sentences, remember, the preamble to the constitution is one sentence as well;oP
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Yea..be even nicer to force them to do it, I don't think they'd volunteer
This would be a rather unfortunate occurance. Microsoft is definitely a problem, but I don't think this is the way to handle them. They are a member of the Dow Industrial Index, their OS still is THE mainstream OS, Microsoft Word still sets the standard among word processors, and don't forget, they consolidated most of the PC world with a standard, albeit not a perfect one, but a standard nonetheless. That said, I am not, nor will ever be a M$ loyalist, in case anyone is wondering:o). I grant you, breaking up the company into 3 parts will force the parts to compete more vigorously. Consider an alternative scenario, hypothetically. Penalize M$, severely, make them pay heavy calculated damages to Caldera, Sun, IBM (I don't know if they also sued, but where is OS/2?), Netscape/AOL (I know..Aol doesn't need the money), and who ever else they have harmed. I mean heavy fines, ongoing. They listed 'Linux' as a competing OS in legal documents. Fine, let them then support the competition, as IBM (a legal trust), already does. They should either heavily and monetarily support, (although not have any control whatsoever over) a few of the free, non-commercially funded Linux projects, like Slackware (my personal preference;o) or Debian (albeit VA Linux and Corel are throwing their weight behind it, its still a free project I believe), or, they can become distributors of their own distribution, and support it with resources similar to the support they give Windows (I know ppl. groan at M$ Linux, but why not? If you can't beat us, join us;o) Why Linux and not another OS, like a bsd, or Solaris? First of all, Linux is best positioned at this time and place, bsd's and solaris outstrip linux server side, while Linux rips them on the desktop. (Please, this is my subjective opinion, no lame flames, stay on topic) Secondly, M$ did list them as a competitor in some anti-trust document, I remember reading that on The Register. BeOS is also another 'competitor' that merits financial support from M$, being as the nature of an anti-trust suit stipulates that the offender has suppressed new technology through unfair market manipulation, BeOS and Linux qualify as new innovations worth M$ penalty funding. If they don't want to compete with anyone else, make them divide their resources and compete with themselves. I think that if they are allowed to remain one company, but are SEVERELY penalized, it would be a faster resolution, a fairer resolution (for this to work they would need to be monetarily penalized in the range of the billions of $$'s, because it is ill-begotten gain), and it would be better for our economy, as well as the worlds economy. I may not personally like them, but how will it help anything if they are penalized in such manner that would degrade their service to their other customers? Most of whom couldn't care less about software wars, but would be hurt anyway. I must admit, a breakup would be gratifying though. They need to be reborn, as AT&T, and IBM were, because there is alot of ideas and innovations on their side, even if they have been hiding it behind millions of lines of buggy code. Their office software is standard setting, their OS is still the most widely used. Even their 'contributions' to java, were eventually included into an open-source implementation of java whose name escapes me now. M$'s actions have harmed us all, we know that, DoJ knows that. But lets not do more damage to ourselves or others in penalizing them. A breakup will be fought by Microsoft in court, vigorously for years, providing much hoopla, instead of amicably settling this, by allowing them to remain whole, but cutting in on Uncle Bill's paycheck. I think both sides could begin to work on the basis of keeping them together, but seriously downsizing them, in what is already a historical case. I don't know if this idea will be popular, but I hope it'd be well received, and if I err, I hope it is to the side of mercy, not for their sake, but for the greater cosmopolitan good. P.S.: What OS ran your first PC? Mine was a TandyRL1000, but I didn't begin to learn anything really until I got a wintel machine at 9. Just a thought. P.P.S: Sorry about the long sentences, remember, the preamble to the constitution is one sentence as well ;oP