>Interesting points..
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>It is clear that many of MS's actions were anti-competitive and were in violation of anti-trust law. ATT was in violation as well. Since the break-up, service, particularly customer service with phone companies has gone down. Do we pay less for phone service? I don't think so. The irony is that Verizon is bigger or very close to the size of ATT was in 1984.
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>As far as problems are concerned, one really needs to differentiate between the consumer and business sectors. From a consumer sector, I don't the problems manifested nearly as clearly as I see them in the business sector. Take Compaq for example. They wanted to ship Windows with the Netscape, not IE browser. As a consumer, am I really impacted? Not really. Is/was Compaq negatively impacted? Sure. Was what MS did in violation of the law. Yes.
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>The point I am making is that in framing an argument and illustrating what MS has done, doing it from the perspective of the consumer is not nearly as effective as doing it from the perspective of other businesses.
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>It will be interesting to see what the remedy will be. MS is anxious to settle. It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court grants cert. The state attorneys general are trying to stop this move.
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>We shall see....

I see your points, but make a final one: it is the consumer how is paying the bills. I get the feeling that CEOs at many companies think the consumer is like a chicken, to be kept confined, and fed software. The chicken's only duty is to poop cash.

Interesting discussion, John, thanks.