Microsoft

SINCE THE 1990S, Microsoft (MS) has been targeted for investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the European Commission, the Japanese government, and several software trade associations. Microsoft has also been sued by individuals, other companies, and a number of states. There are two schools of thought on Microsoft's legal problems. One school argues that the government and MS competitors are out to get Bill Gates and his company because Microsoft has been so successful. The other school of thought insists that Gates and Microsoft have consistently engaged in cutthroat competition designed to shut out all competition through any means available.

Specifically, Microsoft has been charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by forcing computer vendors and manufacturers to load new computers with Microsoft Windows as an operating system. Secondly, the company has been charged with forcing out browser competition by requiring vendors and manufacturers to include Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) as the browser of choice for Windows and by removing icons for other browsers, such as Netscape, from computer desktops. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader called Microsoft “the most dangerous company in America today.”

There is little doubt that Microsoft has dominated the computer software industry since its introduction of Windows 95 operating system in August 1995. Microsoft had been working for years [Page 531]to provide an operating system for the PC that would be as user friendly as that of Apple Macintosh computers. In 1988, in a landmark case, MS convinced the courts to uphold its right to copy the Graphical User Interface (GUI) used in Apple computers. Microsoft then introduced Windows 3.0, a weak and bug-filled imitation of the Mac. While its operating system was being fine-tuned, MS worked on innovations for its basic Windows programs, which would extend the market for Microsoft products.

As far back as the mid-1970s, MS had begun developing a string of improvements in the way that computers operate. In 1975, MS introduced the first Basic programming language for the personal computer (PC). The next year, Microsoft Word 1.0 became the first PC-based word processor to support a mouse. Within the next two years, Word 3.0 became the first PC-based word processor to support a laser printer. In 1987, MS introduced Excel, the first spreadsheet for Windows and followed it up two years later by adding the capability of generating tables to MS Word. In 1989, MS Office introduced the first suite of business applications. In 1991, MS incorporated multimedia into MS Works and drag-and-drop was added to MS Word.

In 1994, MS and Timex united to provide the first wristwatch to accept data from a computer. The following year, MS combined Intel's hardware with its own software, and Windows 95 was introduced. The rest, as they say, is history. From that point on, Microsoft became the force to be reckoned with in the computer industry. Within the first few months, Windows 95 sold over 50 million copies. Further improvements were made in Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

As Microsoft expanded and cornered a greater share of software markets, MS marketing practices were challenged by Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Novell, Lotus, and Word Perfect. In 1998, Robert Bork, a nationally known antitrust scholar who was notorious for his part in Richard Nixon's “Saturday Night Massacre” and for unsuccessfully seeking a seat on the Supreme Court in 1987, joined Netscape, MS's closest competitor for the browser market, as a consultant.

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