Microsoft's Cracked Windows: How The World's Technology Juggernaut Lost Its Buzz And Became The 'Underdog'

The author tends to completely downplay the role that the anti-trust investigat­ions had on the industry.



Previous to those investigat­ions, which attracted many states in the US to join in the suit, gates and company literally did whatever they pleased. Lawsuits against them took so long to be heard that the aggrieved companies gave in to "buyouts" from microsoft or went under entirely. I will leave the readers to research the litany of legal offenses carried out in the 90s by microsoft - documentat­ion abounds on the subject.



So when the Fed and state attorneys general went after them, it breathed new life into companies that innovated (i.e. they were a threat to the most non-innova­tive technology company in history) - they began suing for patent infringeme­nts and other offenses, pursuing and winning cases because Venture Capitalist firms suddenly began to see the revenue potential in winning cases against microsoft. Infringeme­nts meant big payoffs and years of licensing revenue.



Without the technologi­cal equivalent of gold-carry­ing ships to pirate and plunder on the old high seas, microsoft had to do try to build some things on their own. They stink at it. They've always stunk at it.



Which leads me to the final point. The phrase, "... did not even exist when Microsoft first developed an Internet browser." is inaccurate­. They didn't develop a browser. They bought the code from NCSA (it might have been Spyglass then) back in the mid 90s.
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