Empires on the edge

Dan Gillmor's reaction to Microsoft's stance of "no compromise":

Microsoft leaves no doubt in blowing off judge's order

...We've made our deal with the feds, proclaimed the lawyers [of Microsoft]. We're not going to even consider a compromise.

Of course they would say that. The deal with the Justice Department, plus the nine other states that went along, is one of the most remarkable government gifts to a lawbreaker since Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. At least Ford sincerely had the national interest in mind.

All this energy, all this time, and all because a thuggish company was allowed to get away with theft so often for so long. Well, theft as far as I'm concerned. Theft of the base MS-DOS code, theft of the very nature of a GUI, theft of...oh, on and on.

If laws involving the protection of legit intellectual property rights had been properly enforced, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. I am loathe to see a government "solution" to the issue because they invariably suck rancid wind. Yet Micro$oft persists in acting as one of those rich corporations that give Rich Corporations a bad name. A basic fact has to be recognized, that Bill Gates & Co. don't innovate, they borrow (steal) and renovate; they exist in an evolutionary world, nothing revolutionary. They could no more think of a genuinely new way of working with a computer (or of doing business) than Bill Clinton could say "no" to an intern.

Meanwhile, I've gone back on my earlier proclamation, and a copy of Office XP Standard resides on my laptop. Very pretty, very evolutionary (the most revolutionary aspect is how the software mandates activation, and there's a clue), but in a nice way. And despite that, I still prefer WordPerfect....