Your thoughts on the recent court decision on the Microsoft antitrust case?

Here are the pertinent news links for the cave-dwellers:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-964278.html
http://money.cnn.com/2002/11/01/tech...medy/index.htm
http://news.com.com/2009-1001-964255...g=fd_lede1_hed

Anyway, with the antitrust case seemingly over after more than four years of court battles, what does everyone think?

I think it's fascinating that Microsoft's compliance review panel will be made up solely of Microsoft board members.

yes, the judge must have been on psychotropic medication to let that part pass. wanna bet that panel will find that MS is in compliance?

*indifferent*

The whole case has been a circus to begin with. Sure, MS did engage in some anticompetitive practices... every large company does. But seems to me this case has been more about the other people saying "boo hoo, MS is better than us, SUE SUE SUE" more than anything else.

I still think the whole antitrust case is crap - Microsoft needs stiffer punishments for being a monopoly.

That about sums it up for me.

Except for the automobile industry and maybe petroleum, I have difficulty thinking of an industry that is not monopolized at the regional level if not national. This includes milk marketing, grocery stores, whatever. Okay, some of it may be oligopolies, but there is no real diversity.

Microsoft lost their political bets. If this were a real legal issue, Dairymen, Inc. would be under indictment.

Legally, the punishment wasn't enough. Politically, it's over. Practically, it may go on for a while with appeals, but by the time it is over, we will be 2 generations downline on the technology and it will be irrelevant.