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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/11/02/doj,.microsoft/

DOJ, Microsoft reach settlement

updated 10:15 am EST, Fri November 2, 2001

 
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The U.S. Justice Department has reached an antitrust settlement with Microsoft, which will remain in effect for five years and would require three independent, on-site, full-time computer experts to help enforce the settlement (which has yet to be approved by the Federal judge):

"The settlement would allow computer manufacturers to work with other software developers and place their products on Microsoft's Windows system, and prevent the software giant from punishing anyone who makes or uses competing products, the department said. It would also require the software giant to provide software developers the necessary interfaces to inter-operate with Windows as well as offer uniform licensing terms to key computer makers."


by MacNN Staff

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  1. beno

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2003

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    11/02, 10:43am | report spam | Reply |

    YAWN!

    Anyone who continues to buy MS products deserves whatever they get. The customers are the only ones with really power; MS spits in the face of both the government and the courts.

  1. osiris

    Addicted to MacNN

    Joined: Sep 2000

    0
    11/02, 10:45am | report spam | Reply |

    ok

    I bet that slap on the wrist is really gonna hurt.

    NOT.

  1. Joined:

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    11/02, 11:49am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Sell out!

    Bush never met a corporation he didn't like. I hope the states and the European Union have the guts to fight this.

  1. DavidODonnell

    Joined:

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    11/02, 12:26pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    USA v Microsoft: 0:1

    So, now that we've legally established the well-known fact that Microsoft is an anti-competition monopoly, for punishment the DOJ will give them a slap on the wrist--with a glove, with their wrist protected by thick cushioning, of course.

    Sad to see its business as usual in Redmond and DC.

  1. Joined:

    0
    11/02, 01:20pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    EXTRA!, EXTRA!

    Read all about it!

    The US government now for sale!

    But don't worry! In a couple of years, when it's all worn out, you can probably get a good deal on it on ebay!

  1. berserkintosh

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2003

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    11/02, 01:34pm | report spam | Reply |

    Bush?

    Whats this have to do with Bush r*****? We knew over a year ago Microsoft was going to get away with murder no prob. Lemme guess your still miffed over the election. And europe is no better. Did you see how well they accepted the AOL Warner merger. Right in thier fat pockets. Microsoft has now joined the elite cigarette and oil companies in paying "tribute" to our government. Theres no fight especially when the mummified masses who buy the product dont care about what microsoft does or who they s**** over.

  1. \0

    Joined:

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    11/02, 01:45pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Bush is a mercenary

    It has everything to do with Bush. Microsoft pumped huge amounts of money into supporting him and he's well known as "big friend of big industry and to h*** with the consumer". Nice to see America's government is as corrupt as ever - shame the rest of us outside the US have to put up with it.

  1. \0

    Joined:

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    11/02, 01:46pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Re: Bush

    It has everything to do with Bush you r***** ( and no I'm not the guy you were replying to ). Ever since the so called " election " I've read dozens of references to which way things were going to go in this case because of Bush. Who do you think the DOJ works for? After Bush appointed his people there was little doubt which way this would go. You don't know much about politics do you?

  1. Joined:

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    11/02, 03:04pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    This is the end of MS...

    Ok, everyone seems to think this is a bad thing. But consider this:

    MS basicially has to open up all their little secret API's to developers. What does this do? Allow migration paths to exist. If MS was ordered to be broken up, they would have still maintained their monopoly due to companies not liking difficult switches to other products. But with API's being opened up, a new distro of Linux could come out to seamlessly move a Windows 2000 server to Linux. There are so many possibilities here. Wine and similar projects have been struggling to get partial Windows compatibility up till now. This makes it possible for Wine to probably have full Windows compatibility in the next 18 months. And keep in mind there is an effort to get Wine on PowerPC as well.

    MS also now has to play fair with their customers. So now they can't force Gateway to pay the highest price for Windows just for including Netscape with Gateway.net. (Read the findings of fact for the story on that one).

    Overall this will benefit the consumer quite a bit. People will have a way to migrate, instead of either sitting with MS products for a while, or having to completly dump them.

  1. astrox

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

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    11/02, 06:41pm | report spam | Reply |

    re: YAWN!

    You could say the same about anyone following Hitler before WWII. Looking at it that way would just be condemning every company because someone is going to get punished when it's all over. Maybe they will get what they deserve for their actions, but you must remember that the antitrust concept was meant to protect those who are targets, not to hurt those that run a reprehensible and immoral company.

    This "compromise" is almost exactly the same situation as before: "Try to play nice from now on." Oh, and that worked wonders last time. I don't think opening up the APIs will make any positive difference. In fact, it might just assist in programmers making more software for Windows and thus completing Microsoft's goal.

    My suggestion: take away Windows. Almost everything they do is designed to capture customers and lock them in. The whole subscription concept is proof of that. Each product they come out with is a copy of some other company's software, which they then tie in with the operating system. It is thus mandatory for everyone who is forced to use Windows to also use that new, wonderful, freedom- and flight-inducing software as well. As long as they don't have the monopoly on the core software, customers will have to find software they actually like to go with it, such as QuickTime. Who would actually download Windows Media Player over QuickTime, ceteris paribus (not)? Don't let them knife the baby!

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