Today's Microsoft article rehashed the effects of a ruling against Microsoft in 2000 that ordered the company to break up into factions, saying the company had become a monopoly. In 2001, the order was overturned in U.S appeals court. The original decision came during the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration settled the case with Microsoft.

The judge who oversaw the original case, Thomas Jackson, had some less than positive feelings about Microsoft:

"The Microsoft persona I had been shown throughout the trial was one of militant defiance, unapologetic for its past behavior and determined to continue as before."

...

"Writer Ken Auletta, who wrote a book about the Microsoft case, based in part on interviews with Jackson, quoted the judge as comparing Microsoft executives to members of a drug gang because of their unrepentant attitude in court."

...

"The rationale was to enable the divisions to compete -- the former for applications from independent software suppliers as well as with its now independent counterpart, and the counterpart to write applications for nascent operating systems that might someday offer worthy competition to Windows."