Ben Gilbert: evaluation

Transcript context

…Also, remember. The fact pattern here isn’t exactly great for Microsoft of, well they did ship Windows 95 without Internet Explorer right in the beginning, so… Right. The federal judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson, orders them to do it anyway. Or more specifically, he ordered Microsoft to ship a version of Windows to the PC makers, the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that didn’t include IE, so that those OEMs could load those onto the PCs that they were going to ship to customers if they wanted to. Microsoft said, we told you we can’t do that, but you’re a judge and you’re ordering us to, so they do and surprise, surprise, when you just disable a bunch of code that other code depends on, it doesn’t work. Then, of course, two things happened. Judge Jackson is not pleased since it appears Microsoft is complying with the letter of the law but violating the spirit, thumbing its nose and being arrogant. That’s thing one. Thing two is obviously the PC makers don’t actually ship this version of Windows, so it never sees the light of day. Things get real petty real fast. The DOJ asks the court to hold Microsoft in contempt. Yup, whole bunch of back and forth. Microsoft appeals Judge Jackson’s order, and in early May 1998, the appellate court rules that Microsoft can continue shipping Windows with IE bundled into it, and also continue to bundle any other features that they want as part of Windows as long as it benefits consumers.…

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