MS should go down GNU route

I would like to start by saying that I have read your articles from your time at The Other Place, and I am a daily reader of your current publication. Keep up the good work.

I noticed that you haven't covered the Microsoft appeals decision in as nearly as much detail as many other sites around the Web, so I guess you're as tired of the whole affair as many people are, including me. But please indulge me one comment.

With all the talk of structural remedies and settlement, there is one remedy that I haven't seen discussed at all (of course, I haven't scoured every article or the newsgroups): what if the court ordered Microsoft to release all of its software under the GPL (GNU Public License)? This would certainly "level the playing field", remove Microsoft's monopoly, remove any barriers to entry in the OS and office applications arena, and it would prevent Microsoft from closing up its software again, because the GPL attaches itself to any derivative works (unless Microsoft decides to write Office and Windows from scratch!).

Microsoft has been pounding the "no structural changes" line for so long that this would take the wind out of its sails; if this were proposed as a real solution, Microsoft would be begging to be broken up, rather than let their software be eaten by "Pacman" or the "cancer" that they see is the GPL.

I am sure there are a million holes in this theory, but in my opinion, an interesting theory it is.

Yours truly,

JPN

London, Ontario, Canada

[email address supplied]