Best Place to Challenge Microsoft Is at Register

The stream of revelations from the Justice Department’s case against Microsoft reminds me of a phrase applied elsewhere to Wal-Mart: “Capitalism on Steroids.” Internal Microsoft e-mails that speak to its desire to crush Netscape and other competitors is reminiscent of the “trash talk” that some athletes employ to psych themselves up and to intimidate their opponents.

As we have rejected the use of steroids, and to a lesser extent the use of trash talk, so should we also take a stand against bullying tactics in the marketplace. But we don’t need the Justice Department to act on our behalf. As individual consumers, we simply can refuse to support Microsoft with our dollars.

In the same way that we might decline to buy a pair of bluejeans stitched by children working in substandard conditions in a Third World nation, we can say no to Microsoft products and tactics. This will require some homework. Alternative PC software is difficult to find and many of Microsoft’s competitors are also “on steroids.” But there are software concerns that are less focused on market domination and more interested in creating quality products through their love of the software engineering craft--the creators of the Linux operating system being one significant example.

Microsoft will continue to be hugely successful to the extent that millions of ordinary consumers look the other way when its hyper-competitive tactics are revealed. It is somewhat more challenging as a consumer to take qualities other than cost and surface product quality into consideration when making a PC software purchase. But with all due respect to the Justice Department, that is the only thing that really will make a difference to Microsoft.

BERNIE GUZMAN

Poway, Calif.