To recap, Judge Jackson had ordered Microsoft to offer computer makers the option of licensing a version of its Windows 95 operating system without Microsoft’s Explorer Internet browser. Microsoft insisted that because the latest versions of the two were so thoroughly integrated, the best it could offer was either a creaky old variation of Windows or a new one that didn’t work. The response was widely seen as violating the spirit of the judge’s order–as Jackson himself indicated when he performed his own quickie deinstallation of Explorer from a new version of Windows. (Microsoft noted that this process doesn’t really get rid of the browser code, but the judge seemed satisfied that the Explorer icon was purged from the desktop.)
It was a PR disaster for Microsoft, and probably an impending defeat in court. No wonder Microsoft’s lead counsel, William Nuekom, called the DOJ’s chief trustbuster, Joel Klein, on Wednesday, proposing to offer licensees the quick-fix version that the judge seemed to prefer.
Each side declared victory. But it was a mixed blessing for both parties. Microsoft executives boasted that the agreement took the “compliance issue” off the table, allowing people to focus on the deeper issues of how the government should or should not regulate software–but it was Bill Gates and his lawyers who originally raised the compliance issue. And while Klein hailed the concession as a move toward consumer choice, the fact is that no computer manufacturer has shown an interest in offering anything but the version of Windows with Explorer intact.
Now the case moves to more vital questions. Will Special Master Lawrence Lessig, appointed to make sense of high-tech legal issues, recommend harsh regulation of Microsoft’s domain? What effect will any of this have on Windows 98, the next-version operating system that the DOJ is already investigating? Will Microsoft take back on appeal what it has lost in Judge Jackson’s courtroom?
Meanwhile, the other browser maker, Netscape, had news of its own. The onetime Internet darling announced that it would not only give away its browser (matching Microsoft’s couldn’t-be-lower price point) but release the source code so that anyone can devise innovative enhancements. “This will put a turbo boost behind the velocity of development,” says Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who concedes that computer makers may not widely favor his software unless the DOJ goes after Microsoft “with full aggression.” But that’s ultimately a matter for the judges.
