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Will such evidence be sufficient? Early handicapping from antitrust experts gives Klein high odds in the first part of his case--proving Windows is a monopoly, duh--but rates his chance of overall victory as fifty-fifty at best. "Justice will have to show Microsoft has achieved a dangerous amount of control of the browser market," notes George Mason law professor William Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission antitrust enforcer. "That's a fairly demanding test...
...proposed remedies are raising eyebrows even higher. Klein, effectively, wants Microsoft either to ship Windows without Explorer or to bundle Navigator as well; allow PC makers to modify their desktops at will and remove Explorer if they so desire; and let online services that have Windows deals promote the Netscape browser anyway. Microsoft responds that stripping Explorer from Windows 98 would mean rewriting significant parts of an operating system that contains 18.2 million lines of code, thus greatly hampering its release--a dubious definition of consumer protection...
...Packard Bell would want to buy Windows at a discount if it didn't include Explorer, a spokeswoman was skeptical. "Would customers want to pay less for a computer without an integrated browser," she mused, "or do they prefer to have an integrated, simple way to surf the Internet?" Microsoft dependents always speak carefully in public, but her implication is clear: her customers would probably want the browser anyway...
Besides, the Justice proposals don't yet address what Klein considers the underlying problem: Microsoft's ongoing practice of rolling new technologies into its operating systems, a process that makes each new version of Windows better and more powerful but also, Klein and his adherents argue, tends to discourage innovation outside of Microsoft's Redmond campus. In fact, what is most striking about the DOJ suit is how much of the perceived Microsoft problem the filing doesn't tackle and how many possible remedies Klein didn't request: an outright breakup of the company, say, or a court-ordered "Chinese...
McNealy may not get that particular wish, but he and his allies are surely hoping for more than they've seen from Justice thus far. "We've been disappointed in the past," a subdued Gary Reback, the Valley's leading anti-Microsoft attorney, said last week. "The government made a start and didn't finish the job. I would hope that doesn't happen again." Although Klein confirmed to TIME last Friday that he has "ongoing investigations into other issues" relating to Microsoft, for the moment he has opted for a surgical strike: bring a tightly focused case today that...