I myself am an advocate of Linux and the Open Source Movement, and I'm often critical of Microsoft, but I think people are missing the larger issue here. Let's not let our religion blind us to the Appeals Court's point. The Appeals Court agreed that Microsoft had monopoly power and used it unlawfully; however, it disagreed with the lower court's remedy (Microsoft's split). The Appeals Court merely sent the case back to the lower court to resolve the time claim and remedy problems inherent to the lower court's decision. The Appeals Court doesn't care about Windows, MacOS, Open-Source, or any technology, it is concerned with procedural substantive due process - ensuring that a defendant received a fair sentence in line with what is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. If a judge has a personal vendetta against a defendant, that defendant cannot receive a fair and just trial - this includes sentencing. The lower court may have been correct in its findings of fact; however, the judge's partiality tainted the appearance of judicial fairness. This is what the Appeals Court was concerned about. On camera, the lower court judge likened Gates to Napoleon and Microsoft to a group of gang members he sentenced earlier. Hopefully the next judge will be a bit more pragmatic - at least enough to conceal his personal opinions of Microsoft during the trial.
I personally have mixed feelings about splitting Microsoft. I truly believe that we would be created a two-headed monster here. The courts are powerless to prevent one operating system company from intimately allying itself with an applications company (i.e., Novell and Computer Associates). Operating System manufacturers have every legal right to favor one application manufacturer over another, so a split does nothing to benefit. It merely means that the wealth and power earned by Microsoft is redistributed, but still within the Microsoft empire. Even opening suspect components of the Windows OS would be more immediately beneficial to competitors. Personally, I'd like to see Microsoft port some of its software over to Linux, especially DirectX...but of course, I'm probably drinking too much blue Kool-Aid.
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I myself am an advocate of Linux and the Open Source Movement, and I'm often critical of Microsoft, but I think people are missing the larger issue here. Let's not let our religion blind us to the Appeals Court's point. The Appeals Court agreed that Microsoft had monopoly power and used it unlawfully; however, it disagreed with the lower court's remedy (Microsoft's split). The Appeals Court merely sent the case back to the lower court to resolve the time claim and remedy problems inherent to the lower court's decision. The Appeals Court doesn't care about Windows, MacOS, Open-Source, or any technology, it is concerned with procedural substantive due process - ensuring that a defendant received a fair sentence in line with what is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. If a judge has a personal vendetta against a defendant, that defendant cannot receive a fair and just trial - this includes sentencing. The lower court may have been correct in its findings of fact; however, the judge's partiality tainted the appearance of judicial fairness. This is what the Appeals Court was concerned about. On camera, the lower court judge likened Gates to Napoleon and Microsoft to a group of gang members he sentenced earlier. Hopefully the next judge will be a bit more pragmatic - at least enough to conceal his personal opinions of Microsoft during the trial.
...but of course, I'm probably drinking too much blue Kool-Aid.
I personally have mixed feelings about splitting Microsoft. I truly believe that we would be created a two-headed monster here. The courts are powerless to prevent one operating system company from intimately allying itself with an applications company (i.e., Novell and Computer Associates). Operating System manufacturers have every legal right to favor one application manufacturer over another, so a split does nothing to benefit. It merely means that the wealth and power earned by Microsoft is redistributed, but still within the Microsoft empire. Even opening suspect components of the Windows OS would be more immediately beneficial to competitors. Personally, I'd like to see Microsoft port some of its software over to Linux, especially DirectX