EDITORIAL - Browser-beaten but still the king

The daily newspapers and the weekly magazines are making hay before the dry news season of the summer with the Microsoft versus the US Department of Justice dog-fight. Some are comparing it to the battle between Teddy Roosevelt and John D Rockefeller. But it is not the same scale and will end differently.

It is not a clash between Clinton and Gates either. This is a battle both would have preferred to avoid, particularly since Clinton is used to winning. His luck in avoiding losing elections or the near-miss legal scrapes is to be gaped at. But he and vice-president Al Gore pretend to share a vision where the information superhighway is used for social goals and not for the $40 billion profit Gates can put in his pocket.

This is similar to Tony Blair's Cool Britannia - a woolly vision with little substance. Let's face it, none of those boys are unreconstructed socialists, so by default the engine of this social revolution has to be business. Or are we missing something? The one business which has showed it has the vision to attempt to foist its PC software and internet products on us is MS.

There is no doubt that MS is in a dangerous position. To watch the old school bullies such as IBM, Sun and Oracle being squeezed out by the newly expanded ex-wimp has a satisfying edge. As I remind people, the business tactics everyone whines about MS using are only the old ones discarded by the ex-big players of Big Iron. That's not to condone, but what do you do to the American Dream when it has as much power as MS?

There is a problem when so many US states are prepared to take action that could take decades to wind its way through the corridors of the US legal system. But let's be straight - the reason users love Windows and its products is that they are familiar and user-friendly. Resellers may grumble as they get another slap from a supplier for not configuring their software to be idiot-proof, but that's the reality of life.

And corporates are in the driving seat here - not the heads of Oracle, Sun and Netscape. So what can be done?

First, only parts of the lawsuits should be allowed. There is no point in breaking up MS - someone else will become equally big. MS should be stopped from entering contracts which limit the distribution and promotion of competing browsers and software. Gates said that 'PC manufacturers are free to include Netscape browsers on any PC they sell'. Only after being beaten with Bill's baseball bat for attempting to do so. MS should be broken up and its software licensed so everyone can develop it. Gates should be happy. He has the dawning realisation that he is the unwilling creator of more companies than he ever thought. That's when things get interesting.