IMHO, it never would have gotten to the courts if there hadn't been so many lobbyists from the other side pushing it through the Dem (aka Reno) Justice Dept (who had some problems of their own they were trying to divert attention to). If these other companies could compete on their own they wouldn't be such cry babies. When I was little, and would go in whining to my mom that someone was picking on me, she send me back out and say go fight your own battles.
The other companies could have 'fought' Microsoft by inventing better products and selling them at better prices, but they didn't. The states and the gov't saw $$s - kind of like the tobacco suits.
When I was little, and would go in whining to my mom that someone was picking on me, she send me back out and say go fight your own battles.
Really? And if that someone had a gun, would she still send you back out to fighy your own battle?
In our litiginous society, sending a company with a $10 million market cap out to do legal battle with Microsoft is akin to sending a kid out against a mass murderer with a gun.
We have courts and legal processes that are designed to level the playing field so that everyone gets justice.
I'm sorry for you that you feel so badly that Microsoft was found to be a monopoly, that they had illegally used that monopoly and that they did, indeed, do unethical, immoral and illegal things.
I'm less sorry about the final judgement. Microsoft got a slap on the wrist. For much fewer evil things, both Standard Oil and AT&T were broken up.
The other companies that 'fought' Microsoft did so because Microsoft wouldn't compete against them directly. Microsoft used illegal tactics to shape the market such that no one but Microsoft could get their products to market.
And since the government didn't get a dime from Microsoft I'm not sure where your consipiracy theory about the government seeing $$$ comes from.
But then I tend to suspect either the sanity, judgement or agenda of anyone who still supports Microsoft or Bill Gates after having seen the evidence.