arn to take the path of least resistance, in this case, the path leading to Microsoft. He has become a regular user of the new Microsoft Network, though he has trouble with its Internet features. Still, he believes Microsoft executives when they deny trying to gain market share by sabotaging competitors' software. He just wonders whether Microsoft "has a full appreciation of its actions in the marketplace." There is reason to believe that Microsoft does (Gleick 1). If a seasoned computer expert was unable to disable the bug planted by Microsoft’s operating system then how are normal everyday lay people supposed to contend against any sabotage which could be silently planted into our computers without our knowledge?In another response from a computer industry leader, we get a glimpse of the power Microsoft has and the potential power which it is capable of wielding in the future. "I personally believe that Microsoft is the most powerful economic force in the United States in the second half of the 20th century," says Eric Schmidt, chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems, a minicomputer and networking company whose business used to be remote from Microsoft's but now finds itself under direct competitive pressure. Some of Microsoft's control over computing, at all levels, is obvious. Much, however, is invisible. Even longtime insiders are just beginning to understand the nature of that power: how Microsoft acquired it, preserves it and exercises it. Schmidt is not alone in his views in the computer world. "The question of what to do about Microsoft is going to be a central public policy issue for the next 20 years," says Mitchell Kapor, the founder and former CEO of Lotus Development Corporation, once the leading PC software company. "Policymakers don't understand the real character of Microsoft yet, the sheer will-to-power that Microsoft has" (Gleick 2-3). Netscape recently released its source codes. This move by ...
