us vs ms: So its over and Microsoft have been "punished". They essentially have to not break the law anymore. This is like punishing a murderer by saying that he isn't allowed to kill any more people. But the government doesn't have any place interfering with the rights of businesses and people to make money. The free market is a magic system that can regulate itself. People can argue that government intervention is needed to protect consumers, but look at why this whole case started - it was lobbying from other technology companies that had been out-manouvered by Microsoft.

Compare IE 4 and Netscape 4 - IE is definately a better product for users. Its faster, smoother and has better standards compliance. Netscape were distracted by their own success and the fact that they believed they had a monopoly.

Look at the Java situation - Microsoft made improvements to Java - their JVM is still one of the best around even though they haven't been working on it. Many of the Java developers I know use Microsoft Visual J++ because it performs so much better than any of the alternatives. This was never a fight for better technology or the rights of consumers. This has been an attempt by some less successful technology companies to use the American political system to their benefit. And of course Microsoft beat them at that game too.

Luckilly for me I can ignore the whole debate. I don't really care if the proprietary software companies argue and fight and sue each other. The software I use comes in source code form and I have the right to modify it as I please.

war: This article scared me a bit. It looks like the US is falling into the same trap they did in Vietnam. All the new technologies havn't helped deal with guerilla warfare. It sucks but what can we do?