Pathetic. Flat. Out. Pathetic.

Is Microsoft SERIOUS?!

Aparently the EU has more balls than the US Courts when it comes to Microsoft... Now that Microsoft stands to be fined $2.4M/day for non-compliance with the EU ruling, rather than comply, MS has decided to to cry to the US Federal Government that Europe is not treating MS "fairly". Wah. Boo-freakin'-hoo. Microsoft has been getting away with charging brick-and-mortar old-economy markups for products which cost virtually nothing to manufacture and distribute for twenty years. Microsoft, a company with a market capitalization nearly thirty times that of General Motors($282.93B v. $11.88B respectively as of 20060331), is finally getting a little resistance and it just can't take it.

I'm just sick of it. And I'm sick of the fact that the market (end users, enterprises, governments, et cetera) is perfectly content to go along with Microsoft's vision of how the technology world should be. Microsoft has become the government and the government has become Microsoft's bitch.

I hope the EU has the balls to keep standing up to MS and make 'em pay. I have absolutely no sympathy at all for Microsoft as a company. Microsoft has managed to leverage its market dominance (built on second-rate products and slick marketing) into obscene profits which no one seems to question seriously. Microsoft is a bully and a despot. It is so ridiculously wealthy that it, aparently, cannot be stopped. Even the Federal Government of The United States of America, aparently, lacks the power to end Microsoft's exploitive and predatory behavior.

Isn't that funny? The US Government has no trouble spending hundreds of billions of Dollars and sacrificing thousands of lives in pre-emptively overthrowing the governments of sovereign countries for, at best, questionable cause, but it can't seem to put a solid case together to end Microsoft's extorsive reign.... No, the US Government actually goes to bat for Microsoft.

I'm just sick of it. "Be fair." ...my ass!