Among those who believe that Microsoft shouldn’t be sanctioned
for antitrust violations and that the courts have no business going
after Microsoft: Eric Raymond and Ximian’s Nat Friedman.
“But a surprisingly large group of entrepreneurs, including some
of Microsoft’s most vocal critics, say they
either don’t want or don’t
need any court-ordered protection from Bill Gates & Co.
Instead, they have come up with their own ways to keep what they
see as the wolf from the door….”“‘We believe we can win in the market of ideas rather than in
the courts,’ says Nat Friedman, co-founder of Ximian Inc., a
Boston-based company that is developing a suite of Linux-based
products to compete with Microsoft’s applications
software.”….“Mr. Freeman, of Ximian, believes the open-source movement is
leveling the playing fields by creating high-quality, free software
that isn’t controlled by any one entity.
Moreover, ‘open-source development tends to be centered around the
Internet, which is an area where Microsoft has had very little
leverage,’ said Eric Raymond, a prominent open-source advocate. ‘My
own view is that [government] intervention was neither necessary or
justified,’ Mr. Raymond said.”