We agree that very successful companies have an obligation, like Caesar's wife, to not only behave properly, but look like they're behaving properly. Sometimes Microsoft, in its enthusiastic and aggressive style goes a little too close to the invisible line. It probably doesn't cross it, but people wonder. Getting big may mean you have to be just a little more circumspect. If Microsoft's competitors have something to complain about, they ought to complain in public, not whisper in the corridors of Washington.
Public disclosure is a good protection against commercial retaliation.
But if they have nothing this public to say, then perhaps they should have nothing to say at all. I have always admired Andy Grove's comment at a long ago PC Forum where he remarked that if all the companies who spent much of their time complaining about Microsoft's anti-competitive practices spent that time writing and shipping great software, they'd be too busy being successful to complain. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden.