It just goes to show you that even when the world is thrown into upheaval, some things just never change. We don't mind telling you that, like most Americans, we've been in a state of shock for the past week and a half, but we've found an unlikely anchor to cling to in these times of uncertainty: Microsoft. Yes, just this week we've had to deal with the fallout of two nasty viruses that were made possible thanks to Microsoft's omnipresent security holes, and as if that wasn't comfort enough for our troubled souls, the latest developments in "Redmond Justice" have proven to us once and for all that, fundamentally speaking, we're still in the same ol' country, and for the most part, the same rules still apply.

See, Microsoft's antitrust case has been plodding along in one form or another for about four years now, and according to the New York Times, it may very well continue to plod along for several more years to come. The government just proposed a timetable by which it hopes to wrap up this marathon case, and apparently it could take "years to conclude"; according to the government's plan, hearings to determine Microsoft's penalty won't even start until next February. Remember, the government's the side that should want this finished quickly, so we can only imagine what Microsoft's proposed schedule must look like-- we figure it features remedy hearings commencing shortly after intelligent apes enslave man and rule the earth and finishes up roughly twenty million years after our sun goes nova.

The upshot, of course, is that no matter what, Microsoft gets to ship Windows XP sans interference, and by the time any kind of resolution reaches this case, whatever remedy that's imposed on Microsoft will likely be moot. It's certainly not going to bring Netscape back from the virtual dead, and if anything, Windows XP is far more anticompetitive than Windows 95 ever was. Remember Windows 95? The operating system that kicked off this whole hullabaloo? That's okay, neither does anyone else... and if you also said "Whatscape?" you're in good company, too. See? Business as usual. Comforting, isn't it?