For god sake Microsoft is NOT A MONOPOLY!

[killswitch1968]

All these ridiculous lawsuits posed against them always seem to lay the burden of proof on them.
"You are anti-competetive"
"No we're not"
"Prove it!"
Which of course opposite to how anyone else is tried in the US.

First things first: What is a monopoly? The term itself is vague, but economically it means the SOLE provider of a good or service. What good or services does Microsoft currently provide?

1. PDAs
2. Operating Systems
3. Office suites
4. Keyboards/Mice
5. Internet Browser
6. Instant messenger client
7. Webmail
8. Media Player

Are they the sole provider of ANY of these? Absolutely NOT. They are of course the sole provider of MICROSOFT products, but Coke is the sole provider of Coke products, and no one makes a fuss over that.
Microsoft CANNOT charge whatever they want for these products because companies will simply look elsewhere. Of course it seems ludicrous to charge $400 for a $0.69 disc, but then again you're not paying for a blank disc, you're paying for the information within, and THAT is what's expensive and takes a long time to develop. They are recouping FIXED costs, not variable ones.

So get off your high horse: Microsoft dominate the industry for a lot of reasons, none of which is they are a monopoly. Does Microsoft make inferior products? If you believe the Linux zealots (and I partly do) then yes, microsoft makes inferior products.
Their products are on desktop computers not because they have some strangle-hold on the market, it is because of the millions of blue collar Joes who make conscientious decision to buy computers with Microsoft products, the thousands of companies who program software solely for the Microsoft OS, and the big name computer suppliers who pay licensing fees to put XP into their computer bundles. None of these decisions have been made under the direct and authoratitive economic control of Microsoft.

Now I'm not some microsoft fanboy: I don't use their browser, their hardware, their IM client, or their webmail. I do use XP and Office, mostly because I am too lazy to try Linux or OpenOffice. I don't think the benefits they offer will be great enough for me to switch? Plus, like most desktop users, I didn't pay a dime for MS software.