Microsoft 1, Justice Department 0
ZDNet | at | by Mike
There are three topics you just can't bring up in polite company without spoiling for a fight: politics, religion, and Microsoft. All three involve power, influence, wealth, and potential suffering. And all three can leave rationality and fairness in the dust. So it was a major break for Microsoft when the U.S. Court of Appeals recently let the company off the hook a bit and blasted Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's breakup plan and his character. Its critics rail about how Microsoft is planning giant, all-encompassing programs like .Net and HailStorm. What is Microsoft supposed to do? Think small? Produce doilies? Microsoft was sometimes nasty and heavy-handed in stomping competitors. But it won because its products were OK and its competitors' products were often crap. In the tech world, the company that gets there first with something that works, wins.