Justice Department Tells Judge That Microsoft Settlement Is Tough on Company

AP ^ | 11/15/01 | Ted Bridis

[Bush2000]

Harr, do you believe that Jackson was (a) happy or (b) angry when his injunction against Microsoft resulting from its so-called violation of the original consent decree was slammed back in his face by the Appeals Court? Was Jackson just being helpful when he routinely napped during the presentation of Microsoft witnesses? Was Jackson being fair when it denied Microsoft a remedy hearing, a clear violation of its rights? Why did Jackson routinely refuse to permit Microsoft to enter evidence which bolstered its case into the record? And why did Jackson feel that he had the right to talk to reporters in secret when ethics rules clearly showed that he shouldn't be doing so?

The bottom line is that a pattern of conduct emerges which, although not meeting the Appeals Court's legal standard for bias (in other words, there was no smoking gun), would convince the average person that Jackson had a grudge against Microsoft from the very start.

[Bush2000]

What I'm suggesting to you is that the only evidence which would have convinced this Appeals Court would have been an outright admission on the part of Jackson. And, since Jackson denied it, the legal standard was too tough a standard for MS to climb. I'm sure that Jackson got a pretty good laugh after he issued his ruling. But it probably stings, now that he's been rebuked by the Appeals Court for breaking ethics rules. The guy deserves to be impeached, in my opinion.

[Dominic Harr]

And, since Jackson denied it, the legal standard was too tough a standard for MS to climb.

Excuse me? Did you read the appeals court decision? Any of the quotes I just offered? Am I 'speaking' to air?

Microsoft made no allegations of actual bias whatsoever! They made none of those claims in court, save the 'he spoke to the press a little too early' whine.

They never even *tried* to prove actual bias. They just complained about how it looked, knowing that it the mandatory response to their complaint was removal.

MS went Judge Shopping.

And as I posted above, direct quote -- Thus, although Microsoft alleged only appearance of bias, not actual bias, we have reviewed the record with painstaking care and have discerned no evidence of actual bias.

There was no evidence of bias, such as 'sleeping during MS's witnesses'. You're making that all up, in a lame attempt to put the blame for all this on the Judge.

You could save us all a lot of typing if you'd actually go read some of the court decisions and evidence in question . . .

[peabers]

I think DominicHarr is Scott McNealy.

[Dominic Harr]

I think DominicHarr is Scott McNealy.

Let me guess, you're Bill Gates and Shrub2000 is Steve Ballmer?

[Dominic Harr]

I think DominicHarr is Scott McNealy.

Oh, and just F.Y.I., I'm not in any way a fan or 'partisan' of Sun's. I find their hardware far too expensive for what you get. They're outstanding machines, but you can get the same performance for half the price.

Less, with a Linux cluster . . .

I'm only a 'cross-platform' programming partisan. Which does lead me to champion Java, of course.

But other than Java, I couldn't give a rats rear end about Sun. Now, compare that to the MS side of this discussion, which is dominated by MS employees who *only* use MS products, even when better choices are available.

Ah, how much fun it is to ride in a one-horse partisan parade, yes? I think the MS people are so blind because any developer willing to actually *look* at other technologies already switched away from MS years ago.

The only ones *left* doing MS stuff are the people afraid to evaluate alternatives.

[peabers]

Let me guess, you're Bill Gates and Shrub2000 is Steve Ballmer?

Nope. I keep asking the Linux gurus for help here (trying to switch away from MS), but to no avail. It seems like us Linux newbies are too much trouble here, and in the news groups. Oh well.

[aabbccddeeff]

Believe me if there were a comerecially viable,
(mac is not commercially viable for me so don't bother)
way to get into a linux system I would. But, I have
purchased all this software I use in business and
there is no way out of the the microsoft monopoly.
(and now it is a legally recognized monopoly)
I feel microsoft is a large "me too" second rate software
writer. But then again vhs was second rate to beta.

oh well. back to the garage.

[Die Zaubertuba]

Nope. I keep asking the Linux gurus for help here (trying to switch away from MS), but to no avail. It seems like us Linuxnewbies are too much trouble here...

Probably because help-desk questions are quite usually considered off-topic. Not that I don't do this myself sometimes. :) You've probably noticed that the threads that do digress to technical discussions generally end up focusing on network administration and Java and the sorts of things that the techmeisters like Bush2000 and Innocentbystander are concerned with.

I'm a Linux newbie myself, and would love a forum to discuss Linux, but it shouldn't be done in the middle of a political discussion. I'm wondering if our intrepid founder and the moderators would mind a separate thread for Linux desktop questions? How about it Jim? Is such a thing too far from your original concept for FreeRepublic?

[peabers]

I usually ask my questions in those vanity posts that others originate and filed in tech_index. But I get your point.

I have to admit to being a happy lad after finally getting a linux-based router and firewall working. Smoothwall. It was a piece of cake to install and setup. I never could get Mandrake to work properly with my ADSL connection. Now if I can just find a cheap 486 or early Pentium box so I can free up the more powerful box I'm using.

[Die Zaubertuba]

Well, since we're the only people left on this thread anyway... :)

The most useful linux forum I've found is the Corel WP Office for Linux newsgroup, but it's focused mostly on problems with the office suite. I understand the frustration with the techies, though...there doesn't seem to be a real end-user focused forum anywhere (particularly for desktop use-the Corel forum is at least of some use there). You have to be at least a hobbiest (as I am--I know just enough to be dangerous) to even begin to understand some of the discussions.

I suppose this is probably one of the barriers to the market for Linux. Mandrake 8.0 installed like a champ on my machine, and some of the bundled software is "way cool," but if you have problems with other applications, tech support is limited to what you can glean off the net for yourself--some of it better than others.

[peabers]

Mandrake 8 installs much better than 8.1, but X-windows looks a lot better (especially fonts) in 8.1. I reinstalled 8.1 on a workstation yesterday, and was having all kinds of hardware problems. They boiled dow to using the ext3 file system. I reinstalled using ext2 (linux 2) and everything worked.

Have you tried SuSe? Version 7.3 is reported as a Windows slayer at The Register, and a breeze to install and setup.

[Die Zaubertuba]

MDK 8.0 Did install nicely for me. I just wrote and printed my first Microsoft-free document tonight (****grin***) on WordPerfect for Linux and was very pleased at how the Linux version functions. You're right about the fonts though-they do look a bit different.

I'll probably be holding on to my Mandrake install for now since I paid good money for it (I know I could've downloaded it for free but I'm an impatient person and the version I bought included a horde of other killer apps.) My wife and I are actually interested in going a different route from windoze with our desktop configuration (we're hotkey fanatics--must come from working in WP for so long) so I'll probably work with tweaking all the various options and window-manager alternatives until it suits us...

Yet another advantage of the Open-Source movement--the sheer diversity enhances your ability to customize your environment to suit your own needs--not someone else's impression of your needs.