From the book In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters by Merrill Chapman In 1994, the U.S. government arrived at a fairly tooth

From the book In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters by Merrill Chapman In 1994, the U.S. government arrived at a fairly toothless settlement whose provisions wouldn't take effect until 1995. Microsoft agreed not to require hardware manufacturers to buy an OS license for every machine they made, regardless of whether the machine used Windows or DOS. This was a rather pointless restriction, as by the time the decree went into effect there wasn't much else left to buy. Microsoft also agreed not to integrate new features and capabilities into its products if they were intended to "crush" the competition. Presumably, a gentle mauling would have to be sufficient. Gates, however, in an action that signaled he had finally started to grow too big for his britches, made a mistake at this point. Having maneuvered a dream deal out of the DOJ's lawyers, Gates proceeded to hurt their feelings by swaggering about telling everyone that nothing had changed and that Microsoft would continue with business as usual. It was stupid behavior. Microsoft is big and has a lot of money, but the U.S. government is bigger and has all the money. Soft words and a humble attitude would have been the smart move. The political appointees at the DOJ didn't pay much heed to Gates's mouthing off, but in the eyes of the department's career attorneys, Bill Gates was a marked man. ---------------------------- The lesson is that when you get a favorable settlement from a government enforcement agency, be humble about it.