Sigh. Well, you knew the risks when you started watching-- "Redmond Justice" could end at any time with a sudden out-of-court settlement and the show would never get a proper "final episode." We've been extraordinarily lucky so far, actually. We got to tune in for the whole trial, which, all by itself, was better TV than most of the dreck posing as drama out there. And we got to see Judge Jackson issue his momentous findings of fact. Even after that, Microsoft refused to settle and we witnessed the historic guilty verdict. Now we're in the remedy stage, though, and the chances of a settlement continue to rise, so we'd best enjoy it while we can.

Right now Microsoft's drafting its response to the government's proposal that the company be split into two. According to the Associated Press, the company's counterproposal is pretty much what you'd expect. It goes something like this: "How about, instead of breaking us up, you let us keep doing pretty much whatever we want. We'll throw you a couple of bones, of course, like we'll let you 'regulate' our deals with PC manufacturers so we can't coerce them into promoting our products over our competitors', which is pretty much moot now since we've got the market sewn up anyway. Plus we'll even let those manufacturers configure the Windows desktop however they want-- again, we've managed to draw this thing out long enough where it hardly makes any difference anymore. As for removing Internet Explorer from Windows, well, it's (snicker) totally impossible, so instead we'll provide a version of the operating system that 'hides' the browser. You can't get any fairer than that, right?"

Now, in addition to filing this anemic-sounding plan on Wednesday, Microsoft is expected to ask for more time to prepare a "more thorough" objection to the government's breakup plans. You might think the company's just continuing its long-standing general strategy of stalling while technology advances until its legal hassles no longer apply, but there may be a specific reason for the stall tactics now: according to the Seattle Times, some antitrust experts think Microsoft's holding out until President Clinton leaves office. Once Dubya or Algor takes up residence in the big white house, it's likely that Janet Reno and antitrust dude Joel Klein will hit the road. Once that happens, the climate will be much more suitable for Microsoft to wrangle a "friendly" settlement. Ah, the blistering speed of Due Process of Law. Where are all the vigilantes when you need them?