In the last few months, things had been looking kind of grim
for Windows operating systems. As this and many publications had been covering for
a couple years, Microsoft saw the future of computing on the Internet, with a browser
being central to viewing the local machine, networked machines, and the Internet
itself. This future was greatly jeopardized in May of this year when a U.S. District
Court judge slapped Microsoft with a preliminary injunction which forbade them from
integrating Windows 95 and the Internet Explorer browser.
On June 23, a U.S. Court of Appeals overturned this injunction, finding in Microsoft's
favor that such integration was not in violation of a 1995 Consent Decree, as the
Department of Justice asserted, and also that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson had
overstepped his bounds in both his interpretation of the Consent Decree and his
appointment of a "special master" to act as a special judge in the case.
In the Appeals Court decision it was stated that Antitrust scholars have long recognized
the undesirability of having courts oversee product design, and any dampening of
technological innovation would be at cross-purposes with antitrust law. The court
also found that "integration of functionality into the operating system can
bring benefits" for customers, and that "on the facts before us, Microsoft
has clearly met the burden of ascribing facially plausible benefits to its integrated
design as compared to an operating system combined with a stand-alone browser such
as Netscape's Navigator."
While the lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Justice Department against Microsoft
does not rely on the 1995 Consent Decree, and does not target Windows 95 but instead
Windows 98, the Court of Appeals ruling and filed opinion does set a strong precedent
which seriously weakens not only the new lawsuit, but any case the Department of
Justice might choose to bring regarding Windows NT, as well. As Windows NT is
Microsoft's flagship operating system, and is quickly becoming the corporate operating
system of choice, this ruling bodes well for both those of us in the Windows NT
arena and those companies making strong investments in the OS.
Coincidentally, Microsoft has just issued a paper on Windows NT which details its
benefits and place in today's - and tomorrow's - computing world. This paper follows
Windows NT's development history and makes a strong case for why Windows NT has
succeeded so well thus far, and why it will continue to do so. It is recommended
reading for anyone in a corporate IT decision-making capacity, as well as anyone
selling Windows NT products and services. Called "MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT: Boosting
Competition in Enterprise Computing", the paper can be found at: