And yet with concrete allegations of hyperaggressive businesses tactics streaming in from companies such as Sun, IBM, Netscape, Apple, Intuit, Packard Bell, AOL and now Disney - on Tuesday the court heard testimony claiming that Microsoft had threatened the Mouse for getting too cozy with Netscape -- one cant help but get the feeling something unpleasant, if not patently illegal, is going on. At the very least, Gates's image has undergone a downgrade that will take years to make over.
If other pending legal actions against Microsoft -- such as the so-called permatemp suit, a class action suit brought by a group of disgruntled temporary workers -- may have a greater chance of realizing concrete gains, one could also argue that the suit has had a galvanizing affect on the industry as a whole: Witness the dramatic AOL-Netscape deal, and the renewed interest in wacky, alternative computing strategies, such as the free operating system Linux and the so-called networked computer. However long the trial may drag on, in just nine weeks it has already changed the face of history.