Why Cant I Trust Microsoft
Microsoft has been in the sights of the US Government for almost eleven years now. According to a Wired News timeline way back in 1990 the Federal Trade Commission began to investigate a possible conspiracy between IBM and Microsoft. After that Microsoft had been in and out of courtrooms for about five years without any punishment. Then in July 1994 Microsoft settled antitrust charges with the Justice Department, signing a decree that forbid Microsoft from using its operating systems dominance to squelch competition. (Wired News) That decree was used against Microsoft in the courts for the next four years. According to the article "U.S. Justice Department attempts to rein in Microsoft" in Information Intelligence Online Newsletter, The main complaint is that Microsoft was illegally forcing retailers to bundle Microsoft programs with new PC's or else they would not grant them official retailer licenses. The biggest complaint was that Microsoft was designing windows with an already incorporated web browser, taking away customers from Netscape and its navigator web browser.In October of 1998 Microsoft was taken to the US court on charges of violating the Sherman Antitrust act of 18
On September 6th 2001 the US Government announced that it would no longer seek the breakup of Microsoft Corp. 90, This was the first time that Microsoft had actually been formally charged of being a monopoly that hurt US consumers. According to the timeline, on June 7th judge Jackson ordered that Microsoft be broken up. At first Netscape was actually a better product but as improvements with explorer came in a very little time both of the products became fairly equal. According to Laurence Zuckerman Microsoft changed how people got their web browsers, Microsoft "gave away millions of free copies of Internet Explorer while Netscape continued to try to sell Navigator. and that it wanted to seek a quick resolution to the case. However at the time Windows 95 came out the most popular Internet browser was Netscape Navigator and it was not free if you wanted it you had to go down to the store and buy it. Microsoft required Retailers to include bundles of it's software including their browser, to purchases of new PC's that where delivered with windows, in order to be a licensed dealer for windows 95. Microsoft decided that they also wanted some of that market and created their own service provider, MSN. I do agree if Microsoft starts to raise its prices astronomically and there is no companies that it is competing with the government should step in. The fact that Microsoft's presence in a market place generally brings down prices as a whole is close to my number one reason for allowing Microsoft to continue untouched by our federal government. MSN was put on the desktop of every copy of windows and it was given tons of publicity. For example AOL and Time Warner, Daimler Chrysler is one of the biggest auto mergers there has ever been. The article titled The Microsoft Corporation in collision with antitrust law echoes my own thoughts on Microsoft's position as king of the hill.
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