Word: microsoft
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...drive it to some place. All they had to do was hijack an airplane." They made it look so easy, you wondered if the only reason the U.S. has not seen a hijacking in 20 years was because hardly anyone was trying. It's a wonder why not; the Microsoft flight simulator and Fly! II--the two most popular simulators for personal computers--allow you to pretend to fly between the World Trade Center towers, and into them. Anyone looking to practice can buy the software off the shelf...
...recent decision of the U.S. Department of Justice to abandon its previous strategy in the Microsoft case—to break Microsoft into separate companies for operating systems and software applications—is an unfortunate step that raises questions about the Bush administration’s commitment to antitrust enforcement...
...efforts at limiting Microsoft’s monopolistic behavior through “conduct remedies”—agreements that force a company to change its practices rather than its structure—have been ineffective at spurring market competition. In 1994, after years of government investigation, Microsoft modified its licensing contract with PC makers under a settlement reached with Justice Department officials. But Microsoft quickly embarked on new efforts to evade the consent degree and to protect its operating system monopoly from offerings by Netscape and Sun, prompting the government’s antitrust suit...
...actions by Microsoft were designed to stifle possible innovations in the computer industry. As the district court found and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld, the company feared that “middleware” such as Netscape’s browser and Sun’s Java would allow greater freedom to choose alternative operating systems with the same functionality. Microsoft’s decisions to prevent consumers from removing Internet Explorer, to require distributors to give Explorer prominent placement on the desktop, and to subvert the Java standard by building its own proprietary version were intended...
Given Microsoft’s resistance to any change in its business practices, the government must be prepared to take aggressive measures to ensure that the software monopoly does not abuse its power. Already, Microsoft has challenged AOL/Time Warner (the owner of Netscape) over the presence of AOL icons on its desktop. The corrections of a conduct remedy should be enforced so as to have as powerful an effect as possible in combating Microsoft’s predatory and monopolistic practices...