Microsoft has a virtual monopoly over the PC OS Market. They reached this goal because they were contracted by IBM to provide the OS of thier new Personal Computer. Had IBM chosen a different company, decieded to keep the license on DOS, or if they did it themselves, Microsoft would not have been the juggernaut that it is today. Bottom line: Gates is lucky that he is worth $70 billion. Not that I am against Gates himself, I would probably do the same thing were I in his position. Now that Microsoft has a monopoly, it is destroying the competitiveness of the industry. Apple Computer, which has the only major alternative OS, was going bankrupt. Microsoft gave money to Apple so it wouldn't go bankrupt. In any industry, the companies should be innovative. The government regulates monopolies because if there was a monopoly, it would not have to innovate. When Apple was dying, it was because it made inferrior products. And if a company can't be productive and earn profits, then its place should be taken by a more productive and effecient company. I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm just saying that a company should make money by selling products to consumers, not by being chosen to survive so that huge corporations can technically not be a monopoly. Apple also made a deal with Microsoft, it would support many Microsoft programs, such as MS Word and MS IE. This means that every computer made has MS IE on it. Microsoft clearly has the biggest monopoly since AT&T was broken up. Microsoft's tactics are to control the market, not let the market control it. You are the market, and so you must ask yourself, "Do I want to mold the technology industry, or do I want the technology industry to control me?" If you like Microsoft, then you are choosing the second have of the question. Bill Gates is smart, and he knows what the future of the technology industry is. He relizes that Java will be the next big thing. So he tried to kill it. Microsoft edited their Java so that it would only work with Microsoft operating systems. Doing that destroyed the very concept that spawned Java. You can't say that Microsoft is for competitevness if they are destroying programs. We are currently in the biggest economical revolution since the invention of the steam enginge. During that time, innovation spawned many new technologies that paved the way for the future. If we let Microsoft control this market, many of the programs that could be created won't. Microsoft is sabbotaging the information revolution. We're only going to have one information revolution, and if Microsoft keeps destroying innovation, there won't be enough funding in the future to create new technologies, and many of the inventions that could halp us won't.