Microsoft's press statement is an interesting read. Despite the MS "things never looked better" spin on any news from the legal front, one may actually use it as a litmus test for where they really think they stand.
The first paragraph drastically overstates the decision by the appeals court to "reverse and remand" in a style that could only be expected in a MS public statement (Remember that "60 Minutes" interview last summer?):
"Microsoft is pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned most of the lower court's findings against the company, drastically narrowing the case and removing the breakup cloud from the company."
Sure. But then, more interestingly, despite trying to downplay its significance, they go on to acknowledge what this decision could mean:
"While there are some aspects of this ruling on which we didn't prevail, we continue to believe that we face significant competition every day and we must continually improve our products in order to succeed."
By placing the nature of "significant competition" in opposition to the "some aspects... on which we didn't prevail", Microsoft effectively states that the court continues to hold them illegally responsible for the lack of competition. That is, MS was unable to convince the court that they did not act as an abusive monopoly. That's not an aspect to be downplayed, and I doubt that anyone at Redmond is really looking at this as a significant victory. Redmond is, afterall, a very cloudy city.
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Slashdot Mirror
The first paragraph drastically overstates the decision by the appeals court to "reverse and remand" in a style that could only be expected in a MS public statement (Remember that "60 Minutes" interview last summer?): Sure. But then, more interestingly, despite trying to downplay its significance, they go on to acknowledge what this decision could mean: By placing the nature of "significant competition" in opposition to the "some aspects
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