Microsoft Injunction Update and Editorial Opinion

Microsoft Injunction Update and Editorial Opinion:

NEWS.COM published an easily readable full text of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's order here. The preliminary injunction issued late Thursday stopped MS from requiring Windows licensees (current or future versions) to include Internet Explorer (current or future versions) on computers they produce. He did not find MS in contempt because of some vague language in the original consent decree, a Justice Department oversight. Judge Jackson set up a Special Master to review the issues and the record and file a recommendation with Judge Jackson in May.

The Special Master is Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor, who has published on the law and cyberspace. The Washinton Post has a good article on Professor Lessig and his role in this case here. The Washington Post also has a good follow up article that discusses the impact on MS, Netscape and the computer/software industry generally.

So what does this mean immediately and in the future for those of us who have chosen Apple and the Mac OS? The immediate direct effects mean very little, mostly bolstering Netscape's struggle to maintain a major market share and the resources to compete with Microsoft in the web browser arena. However, with those resources Netscape can continue to develop good Mac products in a timely manner and not be forced into narrower economic decisions that might greatly affect its Mac support. It may give Apple some additional time to get Rhapsody on the market but I suspect that this won't matter a bit as MS seems to be taking its good time anyway in developing an operating system successor to Windows 95. Windows 98 is no big evolution from Windows 95, except for the inclusion of the obtrusive Internet Explorer 4.0, so it seems that Apple has a wide-open opportunity with Rhapsody anyway. If Judge Jackson ultimately finds against MS, the case will provide a clearer legal tool for the computer/software industry (and, yes, the government) to diminish anti-competitive practices by companies that have become monopolies or near-monopolies. This can only help smaller companies like Apple that try to deliver cutting-edge technology that may threaten those monopolies.

The Washington Post also has an article on how discussions are going on financing the intiative to help connect up all US schools to the internet here.