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goobster · 3127 days ago · link · · parent · post: Did the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit of 2000 accomplish anything?
The simple version is that, if you make the hardware and the software, you can put stuff in the hardware that only your software can talk to. (Because nobody else knows it exists, or because the hardware is looking for an enabling code that only your app can generate, etc.) It is kinda hard to get your head around nowadays, with 80% of all software running in a web browser. Bigger picture: Yes, the lawsuit had to happen. That broke the mold and allowed other platforms to come into existence. Without it, we wouldn't have been able to reach critical mass on tablets or smartphones, because MS software STILL sucks on those... and they've been out for years.