Peritz, Rudolph J.R. --- "The Microsoft Chronicles" [2010] ELECD 478; in Rubini, Luca (ed), "Microsoft on Trial" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Microsoft on Trial

Editor(s): Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848442443

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The Microsoft Chronicles

Author(s): Peritz, Rudolph J.R.

Number of pages: 53

Extract:

6. The Microsoft chronicles
Rudolph J.R. Peritz

1. INTRODUCTION

If there is a twentieth century icon, if there is a symbol for the informa-
tion economy in the United States, it is Bill Gates and his Microsoft
Corporation ­ a symbol for the best and worst of that century's economic
transformation into a networked domain of knowledge bases and com-
munication protocols. At best Bill Gates symbolized the possibility of
success beyond the wildest dreams of a software geek, a college drop-out
who left Harvard and went home to the buzz culture of Seattle with its
coffee bars, its software garages, and its grunge rock cellars. Everyone, it
seemed, wanted to be like Bill. Again, in its best light, Microsoft developed
a software platform that helped lift personal computing into a worldwide
technology for the information economy. But there was the dark side:
At its worst, Microsoft abused the power of its Windows monopoly in
a succession of predatory excesses not seen since the heyday of John D.
Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company. Both Rockefeller and Gates
created networks for national distribution, one the first physical network
for nationwide petroleum transport and the other the first virtual network
of worldwide software standards for PCs. And, according to the Justice
Departments and federal courts of their eras, both violated the antitrust
laws to gain and maintain the dominance of those networks.
But similar means did not lead to similar ends. Standard Oil was broken
up into 33 companies; ...