Re:More retardedness from left field (Score 1)

I agree re "its nice to get bundled software", but strongly disagree with your remark re "its anticompetitive...to detect competing software and prevent it running...". As we all know MS has displayed false error messages and the action was illegal. However their anticompetitive behaviour goes beyond just this.

For example: * License agreements with OEM's that require them to pay MS a license per system sold and not per system installed with MS-Windows. i.e. The OEM has no incentive to sell OS-free systems since they pay MS regardless.
* Buying competitors in order to kill off their software and increase the prices on their own products.
* Hijacking standards (Java) with their own (windows only) extensions
The list goes on.

IIRC The anti-trust acts insist that if a company has been found to behave anti-competitively (as MS have), then all their actions, **including** legal ones, must be considered.

I sincerely hope that MS is brought to heel and lose their mantra of "might is right". If MS's share fell to a level where competition is present, then all consumers will benefit and MS will actually start building better products.

Best