Any attempt to portray Jackson as some kind of radical trust buster could not be more wrong. As a Reagan appointee and staunch Republican, his argument both during and since the hearing has been that the break-up arose from Microsoft's intransigence and could be avoided if only they would talk. The structural remedy was never my remedy of choice, and is not even so today. It was always my preference that the market itself be allowed to rectify the dysfunction disclosed by the evidence, failing which a negotiated settlement was next best. Some analysts believe that the Supreme Court decision provides new grounds for believing a negotiated settlement is still possible.
Settlement is never out of the question.
Speed was always of the essence for the US government and what amounts to a decision to delay the case for more than a year is a gift horse to Microsoft. A case that began five years ago over the integration of Internet browsing software into the Windows operating system is no nearer completion as Microsoft unleashes a new strategy in which the Internet increasingly replaces the desktop as the basis for software development. The announcement this summer of the new strategy called .Net consists essentially of creating a set of programs resembling an operating system that will live on the Internet rather than on the individual desktop computer. Rather than a breakup of IBM, what occurred was a decade of negotiations during which the company altered some of its more overt anti-competitive practices in line with government demands, until the case was finally dropped with the issues involved having lost any relevance due to technological advances. Microsoft will continue to argue that government demands are unrealistic.