So, for those of you who've been hiding under rocks lately, Microsoft has been getting a big can of whup-ass opened on them, courtesy of pretty much everyone. It's really quite refreshing to think that it's possible for the evil uber-corporation to be not only noticed as being an evil uber-corporation, but smacked about for it.
In the Caldera case, we've got the Judge being extremely surly about Microsoft's trying to take bits of previous cases out of context to support their position that the Caldera/DR-DOS suit is complete smeg. Apparently, they believed that the Judge wouldn't actually go back and, well, check the cases in question.
As for the main anti-trust suit, well, when the Judge actually laughs out loud at parts of your testimony, how good can you expect to do? It's only appropriate for such slimy little tonkers as Microsoft's legal team that the Judge is using legal trickiness of his own. By separating the 'findings of fact' from the rest of it, he makes it really hard for Microsoft to wiggle out of this in the future. How? Because the 'findings of fact' are the irrefutable facts that have been established in the case (ie, Microsoft is a monopoly, a bunch of lying scum, Gates is clearly in charge of the whole scheme and due to all of this customers have been harmed) supported by reams of Microsoft email. Since it would be really hard for Microsoft to appeal the findings of fact without dragging out all those wonderful emails again, they probably won't even try. As for the actual verdict and all, well, certainly they'll appeal that.
The wonderful thing about anti-trust trials, of course, is that the government doesn't actually have to have complete victory. Just establishing that a monopoly exists is practically opening the floodgates for everyone with a grudge against Microsoft to cheerfully sue them for vast damages. After all, lawsuits are what America does best.
Not that any of this is likely to matter any time soon, since Microsoft Windows is so universal, and the Microsoft method of no longer providing install disks/discs will make sure that plenty of copies continue to be sold with each new computer. But perhaps soon, they will meet their muchly deserved fate, and be nibbled to death by a thousand surly little companies.
It's a bit refreshing, to see this, after all the cheerful anticompetitive merger mania that's been sweeping the country. At least someone out there is considering wether a company's actions are hurting consumers.
For now, at least.
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