Middle-aged myopia

Without Linux there is no Google. Linux is the only thing breaking the gorilla's grip, and it's still slow and uncertain. The DOJ should have taken stronger action, but they didn't, and we're still paying for it. MS is still playing the same tricks and destroying whatever competitors they can.

I'm not ready to call Google any kind of savior, either. Mass data collection and refined methods of data-mining, with zero legal rights to protect our own personal information, scare me more than microsoft ever could.

Quoting:Mass data collection and refined methods of data-mining, with zero legal rights to protect our own personal information, scare me more than microsoft ever could.

Yeah Google scare the crap out of me. Which is why I don't use any of their services other than the search engine. Which is and enough, as they collect data on my searches.

Ummm....

TC -- speaking of hindsight not being 20/20, last I looked, there were both Linux and FreeBSD before the DOJ decision.

In fact, Linux was growing by leaps and bounds. We had already seen venture capitalists foaming at the mouth, the birth of KDE, SAP and Oracle on Linux, mainframe Linux, etc,etc, etc.

The introduction is a little misleading. Saying "it was correct of the US administration not to pursue plans to break up Microsoft for past anticompetitive behaviour" is wrong on several counts. First, it was the career lawyers at the DOJ that made the decisions. Second, they won the initial trial, but the appeals process helped MS a lot. The problem is US antitrust law and the way the courts enforce it. The DOJ did about as well as could be expected.

The rest of the author's points don't support in any way the notion that competition and consumers have not both been harmed by MS's behavior to this point.