If that is typical of the level of understanding in this debate, then we should not be surprised if they succeed in ruining the computer business. The Department of Justice in the USA, under the influence of Microsoft's competitors, is again trying to claim that the company is stifling the market. The latest assault has to do with the fact that it is allegedly trying to use this monopoly position to integrate its browser and e-mail systems into its operating system, thus obliging others to use it instead of buying a competing product. How making people pay for something is monopolistic compared to acquiring it free is quite beyond this chronicler's comprehension. The essence of a monopoly is that it requires the use of force to maintain it.
Governments are the acknowledged experts in creating monopolies.
Just look around Quebec, we can all think of at least one government created monopoly, a monopoly whose shortcomings were quite evident last winter. If you tried to set up a competing facility there would soon be large, armed, and generally unpleasant men knocking at your door. Viewed in this light Microsoft does not have a monopoly. Nobody obliges me to use all the free software that it supplies. You can use some of their products or choose to use others where there is clear cost benefit to you if you do so.