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Microsoft has done well at the courthouse lately. after years of suits, countersuits, antitrust charges and countercharges, Bill Gates has left the courthouse with his company intact and his hold on the desktops of the world firmly in place. In her article “Keeping an Eye on Microsoft,” Caron Carlson explains the ramifications of the U.S. District Court ruling that essentially OKd the settlement proposal developed about a year ago. While the settlement approval has been characterized elsewhere as a rubber-stamping of the proposal developed earlier by Microsoft and the Department of Justice, that is hardly the case. The lengthy ruling by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly delves deeply into the issues and arguments surrounding the biggest legal case the technology industry has faced.
A week after Microsofts victory in the federal court, the company introduced its Tablet PC at a New York press conference. While many major PC vendors have quickly lined up behind Microsoft, Dell has not yet entered the market. Microsoft is nothing if not persistent, and its task this time around is to prevent the Tablet PC from being shifted into that dusty corner of niche products. With the steep price declines currently hitting the laptop and desktop markets, hardware vendors have their work cut out. For the latest Tablet PC update, see Carmen Nobels story “Enterprise Software Lines Up for Tablet PC.”
Another company with its work cut out is Hewlett-Packard. HP is overdue to fully present its enterprise strategy to a customer base with great interest in how the company will swallow the Compaq acquisition. In “HP Sharpens Web Services,” Darryl Taft and Paula Musich lay out one part of that strategy. HPs Adaptive Management Platform is a major part of the Web services architecture the company is developing to compete with the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Sun.
In this grumpy tech economy, IT professionals who once thought they were living in job security heaven are suddenly considering moving. But where should they go? In her lead story on the new job hot spots, Lisa Vaas looked for the new places where IT jobs, if not plentiful, are at least available. Read Lisas story “New IT Job Hot Spots” to find out why the New York Capital Region, the D.C. Beltway and Californias Inland Empire may be your next home.
Whats your take on the Microsoft court ruling? Write to me at eric_lundquist@ziffdavis.com.