In the Microsoft case, the consumer gain is visible and apparent, while the consumer harm is speculative and fuzzy. But there are enlightening facts in evidence even today. This spurred the mother of all industrial revolutions in Internet Time. Capital threw itself at the dot-com entrepreneurs, in heat to hop onto the networks enabled and made vast by millions of Web surfing PC users. The ferocious counterassault by Microsoft was not in the least unexpected, but it did not deter billions from pouring into the startups, VC's, technology plays, and application gambits.
Every great invention suppresses countless others.
The transcontinental railroad doomed the entire long-haul covered wagon sector. But in opening new vistas it invites headier entrepreneurs to build on an elevated platform. But it contributed in a way that helps customers far beyond the dreams of Apple's less visionary leaders. And I, too, have eaten up the allotted space. Please do tell me more about Judge Jackson.