Breakup of Microsoft

Re “U.S. Urges Court to Split Microsoft Into 2 Companies,” April 29: Here’s an alternative to the idiotic proposal to break up Microsoft. Keep Microsoft in one piece. Break off from the Justice Department the morons who learned nothing from the breakup of AT&T; and its devastating effect on consumers. Antarctica might be a good place to keep them from meddling in affairs they’re incapable of understanding.

JERRY BUCK

Sherman Oaks

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Re “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, So Don’t Do It,” by Robert W. Hahn, Commentary, April 30: I found myself nodding affirmatively, paragraph by paragraph, when I came to the end. At that point, Hahn was identified as a consultant to Microsoft. Bingo! All of the puzzle pieces that had come together suddenly fell out of place. Surely the Commentary editor could find a disinterested third party to unscramble the Microsoft versus the U.S. government puzzle without resorting to an “interested” insider.

CHARLES R. BARR

Upland

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Re “Look Forward on Microsoft,” editorial, April 27: When a new homeowner calls the Edison Co. to have the juice turned on, the service doesn’t come with a box full of switches and outlets built by Edison that are the only brand that works with their electricity.

But if you buy a new PC running Microsoft Windows, you do get a batch of programs, including a Web browser, that are optimized just for their operating system. The saddest part is, as any cross-platform user knows, the Windows operating system is clumsy, redundant, unstable and unreliable.

Any solution to the Microsoft antitrust case must start with opening access to Windows’ OS code. Then, perhaps, maybe some 15-year-old in Canada could get 85% of the world’s computers to function almost as easily as an Apple.

FRANKLIN ODEL

Digital Media Instruction

Otis College of Art and Design

Los Angeles