As the Apple Turns: Scene 2301: Color Us Surprised (5/17/00)

Color Us Surprised (5/17/00)

You can just smell the Sweeps Month in the air! The Justice Department and the remaining seventeen states in the "Redmond Justice" trial sent shock waves thundering across the planet when they filed their latest brief on Wednesday; you could almost hear the gasps of surprise when it did not turn out to be an enthusiastic endorsement of Microsoft's remedy plan, as all signs had indicated it would be. Instead, the show's writers have thrown us another curve-- the government actually issued a strongly-worded rebuttal, which dismantles Microsoft's plan point by point. Wow! We haven't seen a plot twist that unexpected since Angel went evil in the middle of Buffy's second season.

Faithful viewer and Microsoft watchdog Jerry O'Neil referred us to the New York Times summary of this startling development. In stark contrast to our expectations of a wholehearted acceptance of Microsoft's "we promise we'll be good if you don't split us up" proposal, the government instead called the Redmond plan "a cosmetic remedy that would have virtually no competitive significance" and one that "does not address some of the most important violations found by the court." Moreover, the brief calls Microsoft's proposed seven-month remedy hearing schedule "a transparent effort to delay the determination and implementation for its illegal acts as long as possible." BURN!!

So there you have it: the government's response to Microsoft's response to the government's proposal. The show's next episode kicks off the actual hearing phase of the remedy process next Wednesday. We had expected that Microsoft and the government would do the obvious thing and settle their differences, join hands, and sing in the spirit of peace and harmony-- but after this latest plot twist, we don't know what will happen. Maybe a trial of some sort. It's anybody's guess with those wacky writers at the helm!

SceneLink (2301)

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The above scene was taken from the 5/17/00 episode:

May 17, 2000: Now that we think about it, why did Phil Schiller break company policy and flatly deny the Apple handheld's existence? Meanwhile, Mac game developers may have an uphill battle to fight now that the role of Game Sprockets has been "de-emphasized" in Mac OS X, and the government shocks us all by filing a rebuttal to Microsoft's remedy proposal...

Other scenes from that episode:

2299: Why The Denial? (5/17/00) Okay, we've had a full day to digest this whole fracas with Phil Schiller publicly denying any development of an Apple handheld computer, and the suspicion centers of our brains are starting to click into gear...
2300: Bye-Bye Sprockets? (5/17/00) Oh, the games people play... or don't play, as the case may be. The latest word from WWDC doesn't sound very pleasant as far as the future of games on the Mac is concerned. According to a ZDNet article, Apple quietly announced that support for Game Sprockets in Mac OS X may not live up to earlier expectations; certain Sprockets will only be partially integrated, and others won't make the cut at all...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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