The problem is that it is not Bill's fault that some of us feel this way, and so it shouldn't be taken out on him. What if it had been some one else and not he? Maybe that person would have done things differently than he did. But there will always be some people and critics who would think it wasn't done the right way. There is so much hate directed against Bill Gates in the anti-trust case for no real reason and that is really unfair.
Another problem in this case is the anti-trust law itself. According to the Sherman Anti-Trust act, which is the main basis for most of the monopoly laws today. It says that the only thing that is illegal is a company that controls access to the supply of a whole industry to restrict the supply of the whole industry so that it can raise its prices. It means that, since it is impossible for Microsoft to restrict the basically unlimited possible supply of operating software, it cannot be rightfully prosecuted as a monopoly under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. “The Anti-trust law is such a mess that a company can be convicted of being a monopolist if: It charges more than its competitors; that’s supposed evidence of monopoly
It charges the same; supposed evidence of collusion
It charges too little; supposed evidence of predatory pricing.” (Mitchell, 2001). At the moment, when someone goes into a business, it does not matter what price policy they adopt they violate the anti-trust law. It is full of unclear phrases, concepts and definitions that it cannot really be considered a law “Laws are supposed to tell you in advance what you can and cannot do, not just allow government officials to nail you when hey do not like what you are doing or want you to do it their way.” (Sowell, n.d.) So while the Anti-trust law claims to be protecting the consumers from the monopolies, in real it is protecting all the businesses that are loosing to some better company. The trustbusters target firms that are the biggest, the most distinct, most successful, most profitable, most widely advertised and most frequently patronized. Just like Microsoft.
Microsoft is one of the most successful, common software companies on the earth. There are numerous larger computer companies with much more money, but amazing ninety percent of personal computers either have Microsoft Windows on them, or at least did at some point. All people who use Microsoft could choose from many other operating systems, however they chose Microsoft, because it is the most developed one. They were not forced to use it and they had plenty other options.