Re: RE my XP Windows got broke in a Hailstorm

> What's done is done. If you need to blame someone for what's happened,
then
> you should be focusing on your Justice department. They've turned a blind
> eye to what's been obvious to the world for a decade.

I'd say you were way off. First, the JD has been pursuing this for almost
that long. Second, even today you will find a great number of people willing
to argue that 1. Microsoft is not a monopoly and 2. Microsoft hasn't done
anything wrong.

Even here with you there has been the question, "Well, what are they doing
wrong?"

While I wouldn't say that they have been supermen or something, the JD has
pursued this matter even without popular support of the people being ripped
off.

While we are on the topic, I am curious what Canada has done about the
situation? I know that the European Union is pursuing Microsoft in a similar
antitrust trial, but I tend to not pay too much attention to stuff outside
our borders. Is Canada pursuing it?

If blame is important, I would suggest that this situation is directly a
result of the greed and ego of Bill Gates. All of the reports I have seen or
read indicate that this behavior comes directly from him. Much of the
evidence used in the court cases has been emails from him or those following
his orders.

It is not unusual to find people as greedy as Mr. Gates, nor is it unusual
to find those who are convinced their own "vision" should be the future of
humanity. It is unusual for them to have the great fortune he has had.

> Having read Jackson's final judgement a couple of times now, I think it
> effectively dealt with the OS issue, but largely ignored the Office
> monopoly - which is arguably more dangerous than the OS one. Of course, it
> doesn't offer any relief from the emerging web services monopoly.

Well, if you read the findings of fact I think you'll see that the
Application suite doesn't count as a monopoly. Customers do have a choice
about their desktop suite. While MS used the leverage of their OS monopoly
to put their office suite into place, that doesn't necessarily mean that the
suite "controls" any part of the market. In a break up, I think the market
conditions will give Lotus, Corel, and whoever else opportunity to compete.

> Sadly, the present conciliatory attitude of Justice/Bush towards MS
doesn't
> bode well for any effective relief in the foreseable future.

I've noticed you mentioning the problem with Bush and this administration. I
have read a lot of such comments not just from you. But I haven't seen any
evidence at all in the real world to support this sort of conjecture.

During the last election there was a bit of a legal question about who
should be president. Both parties put their best available lawyers on the
job, Al Gore took the attorney who had prosecuted the Microsoft case, but
Bush's lawyers won. Gore's lawyer left the Microsoft case, but Bush's was
placed in charge of it.

I'd appreciate any reference you have that might show me some reason why you
have this ongoing feeling that because Bush is president the Justice
Department is pursuing this differently than they have.

> John Taylor


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