Lost in all the headlines about Friday's settlement with federal trustbusters was the fact that there were really two Microsoft antitrust trials. The first trial, conducted in a downtown Washington courtroom, was a veritable star chamber where a parade of Microsoft witnesses were mercilessly tortured by that Torquemada of Torts, David Boies. The peanut gallery watching the proceedings certainly enjoyed the spectacle of heretofore haughty Microsofties getting a public comeuppance. It was high drama, to be sure, and U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson gave the "get Microsoft" crowd confidence that a judicial ruling would permanently redraw the constellation of forces in the computer industry.
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