John C. Dvorak questions if Microsoft will bleed dry from lawsuits...Years before any of these lawsuits developed and during the OS/2 wars, when Microsoft was playing as nasty as it could, a scion of industry and friend of mine was laughing about how amateurish Microsoft was acting. He predicted back in 1992 that the company would regret its actions. "You cannot be a big corporation and act like a small feisty company doing whatever you want to get ahead," He told me. Microsoft was already too big in 1992 to be acting like a struggling little firm stretching the rules at every turn.
Though this activity did result in the creation of the world's richest man, it has created a situation that makes Microsoft a huge target because of its past bad behavior. Of course, some of the bad behavior still exists in lesser forms, and it's perceived as a continuation of a pattern.
I don't see how the company is going to get out from under these suits. First, the suits will come from state after state. Then certain cities will find a way to soak the company. Microsoft will fight the first few, but then a cookie-cutter template and precedents will emerge, making each case easier than the next. Then Microsoft will get out the checkbook, and it will become a money-grab.
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