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    Throughout the history of the United States the leaders of the country have attempted to balance government regulation with free capitalistic enterprise. The current monopoly laws have come to be only after centuries of decision-making. Each of these decisions was hard fought to ensure that the best possible policy was placed into action. The Microsoft monopoly case, as one of the first and largest court cases dealing with the government's role in the new computer business industry, is bound to establish a major precedent in governmental business policy in the near future, yet public reaction is much varied on whether the decisions were fair. This case gained little of the media attention that it deserved, and must be closely studied in relation to the new computer industry to see whether the decisions were just.    As Microsoft is one of the biggest competitors in this new business environment, and this is the first major monopoly case in the business, the decision is bound to set many precedents for the future. Although the Supreme Court and most of the public found Microsoft to be a monopoly by classic terms, some would argue that Microsoft and the entire computer industry should be considered differently than most other businesses.
      In the 1970's and 1980's the federal government first began to deal with the mostly technical issue of Internet growth and computer development. Its initial position was to guard the standards of open innovation and development in the fledgling business, to allow for maximum growth. By being strong in its regulation of patents and new ideas, the government successfully helped the business very quickly develop into perhaps the most important and most profitable business in the world today. Presently the internet connects the entire world in a way that the early lawmakers could not have imagined. Supporters of the internet strongly argue for the government to stay out. They hope to make the internet the bastion of true free speech for the entire world. In turn, the government, in the last decade, has almost completely let the computer and internet industry run on its own. While the World Wide Web is now truly a place of free speech, the absence of control, some would argue, has allowed the company Microsoft to gain monopolistic status.
      Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975 with the invention of the BASIC computer language for the fledgling computer industry. Microsoft grew rather quickly. It improved its BASIC language many times and was hired by other companies such as IBM to develop products. In 1980 Microsoft developed the very popular operating system named DOS for IBM computers. Each company kept rights to the product. Microsoft named its version MS-DOS, and continued to develop its operating systems. In 1981 Microsoft incorporated into Microsoft Inc.
      Microsoft soon severed its ties with IBM and began creating more developed operating systems. With the advent of Macintosh's graphically based interface in 1984 Microsoft began developing its own graphically based operating system, called Windows. Windows 1.0 was released in 1985 but the system was not popular until Windows 3.0 was released in 1990. By 1995 Microsoft was producing internet browsing utilities as well, starting with the Microsoft network.
      Throughout its early history, Microsoft clearly developed through innovation as well as improvements on existing ideas. It did, however face government regulation. In 1994 Stac Electronics successfully sued Microsoft for copying their Double Space drive compression utility into its MS-DOS 6.0, and in 1995 the US Department of Justice actually filed suit against the company for its plan to buy Intuit, a software development company. Until recently, however, Microsoft has done everything in its power to avoid confrontation with the government.