Rating: 
Summary: Rehashed newspaper articles
Review: No new revelations here. This story has been told in earlier books, and with more ground breaking impact. This is a case of the publisher hoping to capitalize on a big business story, but too late !! See earlier books on the Microsoft antitrust case, such as The Microsoft File.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent look behind the scenes of the case, MS & the DOJ
Review: There are no press releases in this book, no spin by the local media and no facades maintained for the public. Ken Auletta exposes this case for what it is, even if he gets some of the details wrong in the process. There are no heroes and no villains, though there is a distinct slant against Microsoft and its top brass (Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer). Even so, Auletta doesn't paint a rosy picture of the other parties involved either. Overall, I would have to say it's about as impartial as one could be. As I read this book, I found myself flip-flopping back and forth between who I thought was right and who was wrong. In the end it was apparent to me that Microsoft was most likely guilty of some unfair business practices, namely denying computer manufacturers (OEMs) the right to put competitive software on computers with Windows software. But the case mutated away from that point to whether or not Microsoft has the right to add functionality to its operating system. Where this whole saga will end (if ever) is anyone's guess. All in all, this is a good book to get an overview of the case and the people involved.
Rating: 
Summary: A balanced report of the Microsoft Trial
Review: [Disclosure: I am a Microsoft employee] I found this book to be very balanced (though far from always flattering to Microsoft). Both sides take their licks at the hands of Mr. Auletta. Though I was paying moderately close attention during the course of the trial, this book pulls the events into perspective and shows how each side was approaching the case. As to the timing of this book release, the war is not yet over...but we do have a decent amount of perspective from the case since the trial and settlement negotiations were substatially complete in April 2000. The best part of the book is Chapter 21. Here, is much new material on what it was that Microsoft and the US goverment were able to agree to in a negotiated settlement. We get a picture of Microsoft, not agreeing that we broke the law, but willing to compromise and agree to behavioral remedies that would have given competitors assurances of access to Windows technology and freedom from retaliation. But Joel Klein failed in bringing the States into the negotiation process and was unable to form a concensus opinion about what it was the government(s) wanted from the case. And so an opportunity to close this conflict was missed....at an expense of millions of tax dollars, perhaps 100 million expense to MS, and helping to precipitate the stock market downslide of technology stocks in the spring of 2000 (thanks, Joel Klein and Janet Reno!).
Rating:
Summary: A balanced report of the Microsoft Trial
Review: [Disclosure: I am a Microsoft employee] I found this book to be very balanced (though far from always flattering to Microsoft). Both sides take their licks at the hands of Mr. Auletta. Though I was paying moderately close attention during the course of the trial, this book pulls the events into perspective and shows how each side was approaching the case. As to the timing of this book release, the war is not yet over...but we do have a decent amount of perspective from the case since the trial and settlement negotiations were substatially complete in April 2000. The best part of the book is Chapter 21. Here, is much new material on what it was that Microsoft and the US goverment were able to agree to in a negotiated settlement. We get a picture of Microsoft, not agreeing that we broke the law, but willing to compromise and agree to behavioral remedies that would have given competitors assurances of access to Windows technology and freedom from retaliation. But Joel Klein failed in bringing the States into the negotiation process and was unable to form a concensus opinion about what it was the government(s) wanted from the case. And so an opportunity to close this conflict was missed....at an expense of millions of tax dollars, perhaps 100 million expense to MS, and helping to precipitate the stock market downslide of technology stocks in the spring of 2000 (thanks, Joel Klein and Janet Reno!).
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