tlement is not reached, Jackson will issue his final ruling. He'll almost certainly find that Microsoft created an illegal monopoly, that it illegally tied Explorer and Windows, and that, as a result, the company should suffer the most severe sanctions, perhaps even a breakup.Another area of concern for the Justice Department is in productivity software. Microsoft Office has locked up almost all of the desktop suite market, Publisher is a strong competitor at home and Microsoft's other applications lead in most categories. Why? Well, despite their protests, it's obvious to even the casual observer that the application group gets inside information on upcoming operating system (OS) features and functions from the OS group.It happens like clockwork. Microsoft releases a new OS and shortly thereafter updates its applications with key features that take advantage of new OS functionality. Other vendors, forced to play catch-up, can take six to 12 months longer to capitalize on those new features in their applications. Without those new features, their applications lose market share and development resources and begin to lag further and further behind. Eventually they become marginalized (1).For proof, just look at Lotus and Corel in the suite space, Borland in the tools market, or Sybase in the database arena.Part II:I imagine Judge Posner sees his role as facilitating a settlement. How? If I were he, I'd try to get each side to recognize the weaker elements of its arguments and give ground accordingly. There's benefit to each side from settling and moving on -- yet, in the absence of a mediator, like Posner, it seems quite possible that no agreement could be reached. In particular, the many separate state attorneys general are said to have splintered somewhat from the Department of Justice, reportedly demanding relatively more drastic remedies, and Posner therefore likely hopes to remind the plaintiffs of their common interest so that they'...
