The announcement that US regulators want to prod Microsoft to share more information with its partners underlines how things have changed for the software giant.
I remember the siege mentality in Silicon Valley during the first Microsoft trial. The company's browser bundle and its battle with Netscape seemed to make competing against such a dominant, cash-rich rival almost impossible. Who was going to be next? It became a cliché to talk of Silicon Valley venture capitalists asking "the Microsoft question" - how will your new technology fit into the Microsoft ecosystem, given the impossibility of fighting City Hall and taking on Redmond directly?
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