Friday, November 2, 2001

States Reject DoJ/MS Agreement -- 12:18 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The 17 states and the District of Columbia who are taking part in the Department of Justice's case against Microsoft are refusing to sign on to the recent agreement stating that it does nothing to address the real issues. Even if the DoJ is backing off, the victories they won open the door to lawsuits from individual states and corporations. I'm sure this is nowhere near the end of this. Thanks Slashdot.

I must say that I am more than a little sickened by people who say that a settlement was necessary given the events of September 11 and the current state of the economy. If MS really gave a d@mn about September 11 and the economy it wouldn't be the avaricious monopoly it is. MS is concerned about MS and nothing else. To think or expect anything else is the height of naivete.

J.t.Qbe comments: Of course. MS is a corporation. It does everything it does to make money. It's stupid to think otherwise.

This is sad. A few weeks ago I was hoping that the DoJ wasn't caving, but apparently they did. It's the equivalent of poking the gorilla with a stick several times, then letting it out of its cage. MS will not save the economy. If anything, MS will destroy the PC market, and itself.

Thursday, November 1, 2001

MSN Still Blocking Opera -- 2:35 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

BrowserWatch is reporting that parts of MSN are still blocking Opera. Most notable is MSN's CarPoint service (the only reason to visit MSN, IMO). Thanks Linux Today.

Report: DoJ/MS Agreement -- 9:43 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The AP is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft have reached an agreement on settling their court case. No specific details have the agreement were announced, but here are a few rumors floating about:

• Letting Microsoft add new features into its flagship Windows software, but requiring the company also to offer a version that doesn't include those additions.
• Banning restrictive contracts that would force computer makers to buy versions of Windows with new features, but allowing financial incentives such as discounts to make those versions more enticing.
• Forcing Microsoft to reveal parts of its Windows blueprints relating to its Internet browser software, but not the blueprints to Windows.

We'll see what comes of this. Thanks Slashdot.

J.t.Qbe comments: This morning there's a lot of howling that this is a sellout by the DoJ. Let's wait and see. It doesn't look promising, but who knows? With the new restrictiveness of XP and M$'s new licensing schemes, with the impending failure of .NET, maybe Microsoft doesn't need the government to kill it. It's funny, though--Microsoft and others really believe that turning M$ loose will boost the economy. Sure.

Meantime, yesterday it was reported that Amazon saved $17 million by switching to Linux instead of Microsoft. Microsoft whined about the "hidden costs" of going to free software but as usual couldn't explain them. R.I.P. Microsoft.

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