Supreme Court denies Microsoft appeal
updated 12:55 pm EDT, Mon March 17, 2008
Microsoft appeal denied
The US Supreme Court has denied a Microsoft appeal aimed at defeating an antitrust lawsuit, writes the Associated Press. The suit was originally launched by Novell in 2004, and accuses Microsoft of having "deliberately targeted and destroyed" WordPerfect and Quattro Pro with the purpose of preserving the monopoly of the Windows operating system. Both applications continue to be sold under the aegis of Corel, but no longer hold the marketshare they once did.
Novell argues that Microsoft was worried about the applications, which were once able to run on diverse operating systems and thus presented a lure to non-Windows platforms. Microsoft has repudiated these statements by saying that since Novell did not produce operating systems at the time, it cannot claim to have been harmed by anticompetitive behavior from Microsoft.
Replying to the new Supreme Court decision, Microsoft lawyers say that it extends antitrust laws "far beyond their intended scope."
ugh, MacNN
03/17, 01:26pm reply
That's got to be one of the most awkwardly worded explanations I've seen here yet.
What is Corel getting at? Are they saying M$ bundled the apps with the OS, used its marketshare to make their proprietary design and filetypes an industry standard, and then stopped making versions for other OS's which futher drove sales of WinOS?
If that's not what this article is getting at, I'm damn confused. It'd be nice if there was a leak to a site with a better-written article...
danviento
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2005
You Are Confused
03/17, 01:33pm reply
The suit is by Novell, not Corel.
Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999
vs Word
03/17, 02:04pm reply
It's interesting that everyone that I know who uses WordPerfect thinks it's much better than Word. (and all of them have used Word) There's a hint of Mac vs. Windows here with the market leader getting all the 'play' but the real quality being with the 'little guy.' It would be nice if there was a Mac version of Wordperfect .
philrobbie
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Joined: May 2004
Re: vs word
03/17, 03:04pm reply
There was a Mac version of WordPerfect that supported all of the MacOS technologies (even QuickDraw GX and PowerTalk!)
Since being purchased by Corel, it was left to languish. This was around the MacOS 8 timeframe.
Corel WordPerfect was much faster and worked well in its day - but at that time the competition was Word 6 - the worst Mac word processor ever made.
hayesk
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
re: vs word
03/17, 04:56pm reply
Which just makes you wonder how badly the idiots at Wordperfect/Novell/Corel handled the software. Their Mac software was never rated very well (although I can't imagine it was worse than Word 6).
I can't wait to find out how MS destroyed Wordperfect on the Mac OS, Linux, Unix, etc. That'll be interesting. If I understand this decision correctly, all it does is allow Novell to file (or continue) an anti-trust suit against MS, but didn't actually resolve the issue (which will probably be appealed back to the Supreme court as it weaves it way through the system).
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
WordPerfect for Mac
03/17, 07:23pm reply
I used WordPerfect for Mac and it was far superior to Word. It was VERY fast and VERY stable. It also had all the bells and whistled I needed and it was much easier to use IMHO.
webraider
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 2004
anti-mormon conspiracy?
03/18, 02:44am reply
WordPerfect was originally built by Mormons, as I recall. Very high quality product. I loved it on the Atari ST. I really got into the F3 key for Reveal Codes. Today I can't recall why. It was pretty good on Mac too.
Those Mormons are amazing. They also made Crown amplifiers and recorders-- 90% rejection rate on the tape heads. And a prayer break at noon every day.
How could MS win against that? Quality will out, no matter which God you blame it on.
What a word. Eh, world.
Loren
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Joined: Mar 2001