I just finished reading about the preliminary judgement about the Microsoft AntiTrust trial, and I have to say I'm disgusted. Here's the main problem I have with their decision - how can they possibly expect any company to HELP it's competitors?! I mean, this is crazy! The really wild part, is from the software development side, Microsoft has released more valuable information than ANY other organization. Period. Not the normal theoretically good practices, but the practices that work in the trenches; and are one of the main reasons I'm able to release so much software in such a short development time... The problem most of Microsoft's competitors is that they are too egotistical to actually, hmmm, I don't know, LEARN from the most successful software development company around. It's almost like when you were a kid, if someone brought some toy that you didn't have, and that you wanted, you would just go to the teacher and cry until they took whatever it was away from the other kid. Really sad.
    Regardless of what Microsoft has done in the past, what they said throughout the trial is completely true - this industry is more volatile than any other in history. The company that's ruling the pack right now can be begging for table scraps in 10 years, just look at some of the monsters for the 80's that now barely even whisper. What as AOL about 5 years ago - just another ISP; sure, it was a big one, but it was no where near the goliath that it is now... And would they like to take down Microsoft? You bet. Could they do it? Probably not totally, but they could certainly grab a big chunk of the Internet space right out of Microsoft's hands, whether or not Microsoft likes it. Guess what, Microsoft has failed in the past, it's just that they make sure you don't hear about it... Remember MS Pascal? It's not a mystery why...
    I still don't see how ANYTHING Microsoft has done has hurt the consumer, regardless of how many times this was said during the trial. Was the death of crap like OS/2 and Next Microsoft's fault, or the fault of executives that didn't bother to get developers on board their OS? Why not just blame Microsoft instead of poor planning? It sure seems like a safer thing to do; it's certainly feels better than looking a little closer to home.
    And how does this play in the global economy? Right now the US is enjoying it's position on the top of the software development food chain, but guess what; a whole slew of other countries are getting up to speed, and when they are, it's all over. Take a look at Japan and how the large corporations work together, and the role the government plays... Japan wasn't the leader in tech 30 or so years ago, but they played their cards right, their government helped instead of hindered, and where are they now? I saw a great quote once that said "In the US, there are 100 lawyers for every 1 engineer. In Japan, there are 100 engineers for every 1 lawyer. Which country do you think will experience the most growth and innovation?"... What do you think?
    I just have to reiterate that I really think this is a landmark decision, once more proving that to a large extent the legal system has absolutely NO idea how the tech industry works, and what's happening. Try to be successful... Just not too successful...