Microsoft Vs. Us

Microsoft vs. U.S

Back in 1975, the Microsoft Corporation was founded and has grown in size to be the largest software corporation in the US, Claming to have revenue of 512 million in 2003 and a total new worth of 213 Billion. But being the largest software maker in the world isn't easy. The Microsoft Corporation has been sued many times. In this paper I will research the causes and effects of the lawsuit that almost took down the software giant.

As the Microsoft Corporation grows and starts to dominate the software industry many people are labeling them a monopoly and asking the government to step in and do something

Just to give a better understanding, Microsoft is the company that makes the ever popular Windows Operation Systems. Windows Operation systems are used by 2/3 of the market. Microsoft also makes other software applications other than Windows. Some of theses other offerings are server packages like, Windows 2000 Server and SQL server, A office suite correctly named MS OFFICE, but the application that got them in trouble was a internet browser called Internet Explorer. Explorer is a program used to view web pages on the World Wide Wed. Explorer came pre-loaded with windows and was free to use with win 95. Some of Microsoft's smaller applications are Windows media player and Outlook express.

About the same time as the Microsoft corp. was starting to take off, there was another up and coming company called Netscape. Netscape's main application was an internet browser called Netscape Navigator. Which users could load and use on their windows computer if they wanted. Well knowing that most computers in the Market at this time were being shipped with windows and IE, this made if very hard for Netscape to sell its product. After doing some research Netscape contacted the Department of Justice claming that Microsoft was running unfair business practices and could eventually monopolizing the software industry.

In October 1997, a judge holds Microsoft in contempt of court with a fine of 1 million dollars a day for not letting computer makers ship Windows 95 without an Internet Explorer. Two months later a different judge overrules the decision and starts an Anti-Trust trail for Microsoft.

During the trial on December 19, 1997 a demonstration was held in Judge Jackson's court room showing how easy it is to remove the Internet Explorer icon