When will it end?
By MIKE BERMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
February 20, 2002

With apologies to Joan Rivers, can we talk?

I've been behaving myself lately, avoiding any comment about Uncle Bill (Gates) and his continuous battles with the Justice Department. But I just can't tolerate any more episodes in this nauseating soap opera. Please, enough already!

Just when we thought that this thing was settled and Microsoft and other companies could play in the same sandbox, the attorneys general from the nine states and the District of Columbia that were part of the original lawsuit filed by 18 states have refused to settle and an old adversary has joined in the fray.

Also, the Justice Department, compelled by the Tunney Act, a law that provides the opportunity for public comment on antitrust settlements, has received 30,000 reactions to their proposal. Of the replies they received, 7,500 favored the settlement, 15,000 opposed it, and 7,000 had no opinion. They say they'll make their findings public on the Internet and on a CD-ROM by the end of February. For now, you can see 47 of the opinions - most of which are negative - by going to http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/ms-major.htm.

In addition, we have one megalopoly (AOL Time Warner) trying to take on another (Microsoft), claiming that the reason Netscape is inferior to Internet Explorer is because Netscape Communications (now owned by AOL) was forced to give away its browser in order to compete.

For those unfamiliar with ancient history involving Netscape, there was a time when John Q. Public (us) would have to fork over $29.95 for the privilege of using the "full version" to patrol the Internet. Then, along came Internet Explorer (IE), which was free.

In the beginning, folks would have to download IE from the Microsoft Web site, but then the Boys from Redmond decided to make it an integral part of their Windows operating system. Therein lies the problem.

This is seen as anticompetitive. Microsoft was apparently denying Netscape the right to compete on a level playing field by giving away a product that competed with theirs and by making it impossible to use Windows without it. Hence, every version of Windows sold since 1995 has included the infamous Web browser.

Until recently, I've been a big fan of Netscape, opting to use its browser over Microsoft's because it was a superior product. But that all stopped when they came out with Version 6.0, which, for lack of a better term, was a dog.

So now they're howling about being forced to produce an inferior product because they couldn't compete with the Microsoft juggernaut.

When will it end? Stay tuned.