we'd hate to see Google go the way of DR DOS, and OS/2

Microsoft Will Alter Vista Operating System - New York Times -- Finally, somebody has Microsoft's number. Bill Gates may be one of the best game players of all time, but sometimes he gets carried away and a bit ruthless--he has a sort of oriental approach to "all's fair" or winning at any cost. He probably took Sun Tzu's Art of War to heart, back in the day of The Masters of the Universe.

WASHINGTON, June 19 — Microsoft has agreed to make changes to its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint by Google that a feature of Vista is anticompetitive, lawyers involved in the case said on Tuesday.

The settlement, reached in recent days by state prosecutors, the Justice Department
and Microsoft, averted the prospect of litigation over a complaint by Google that Vista had been designed to frustrate computer users who want to use software other than Microsoft’s to search through files on their hard drives.

Google had made its complaint confidentially as part of the consent decree proceedings set up to monitor Microsoft for any anticompetitive conduct after it settled a landmark antitrust lawsuit five years ago that had been brought by the states and the Clinton administration.