Microsoft Antitrust Essays - Microsoft Litigation, Free Essays

Microsoft Antitrust Essays - Microsoft Litigation, Free Essays Microsoft Antitrust Is Microsoft a fetching business model to be emulated or the most destructive force in the software industry? Should the government apply the antitrust laws to the software industry or sit back and wait for dynamic market forces to solve anti-competitive problems? Discussions about Microsoft represent a larger-than-life dispute that speaks not only to the computer giant's impressive efforts to monopolize key elements of the software and electronic commerce markets, but to the larger issues of a high-tech society. Many partisans in debates over Microsoft are speaking to the broader issues and defending ideological views that will be tested as the debate over Microsoft's anti-competitive practices plays out. From my view point, there are some aspects of the dispute that seem clear and others that are anything but clear. First, it is clear that Microsoft has achieved its current market dominance through a combination of factors that include hard work, good luck, popular products, and an impressive array of anti-competitive or simply ruthless business tactics. It is equally apparent that some sectors of the computer industry undoubtedly benefit from this dominance not everyone sells products or services that directly compete against Microsoft in strategic markets, and the existence of a private monopoly for the desktop operating system (OS) simplifies life for some developers. And in the increasingly broad areas where Microsoft has targeted a sector for dominance, the results have been a demoralized software industry, a paucity of venture capital and stifled innovation. What is less than clear is what the government or the public should or can do about Microsoft's often brutal efforts to monopolize software markets. The Justice Department is now focusing on important but relatively narrow issues concerning Microsoft's 1995 antitrust consent agreement, whereby Microsoft agreed not to license Windows 95 on a per-machine basis (forcing computer manufactures to pay twice if they installed competitors' OS) and not to tie the purchase of the OS to the purchase of other Microsoft products. Justice is focusing on contractual agreements between Microsoft and computer manufacturers that require firms that distribute Windows 95 also to distribute Internet Explorer, a product Microsoft wants to replace Netscape as the most-used Internet browser. Microsoft's principle defense against the suit is to argue that Internet Explorer 4.0, a program that takes as much as 66 megabytes on a hard disk, is not an application at all but simply a part of the OS. Because more than 90% of PCs worldwide ship with Microsoft's OS, the issue of what constitutes the OS is an important dispute, given the Microsoft agreement regarding product tie-ins.

Genotype vs Phenotype

Genotype vs Phenotype Ever since Austrian monk Gregor Mendel did artificial selection breeding experiments with his pea plants, understanding how traits are passed down from one generation to the next has been an important field of biology. Genetics is often used as a way to explain evolution, even if Charles Darwin did not know how it worked when he first came up with the original Theory of Evolution. Over time, as society developed more technology, the marriage of evolution and genetics became apparent. Now, the field of Genetics is a very important part of the Modern Synthesis of the Theory of Evolution. The Terms Genotype and Phenotype In order to understand how genetics plays a role in evolution, it is important to know the correct definitions of basic genetics terminology. Two such terms that will be used repeatedly are genotype and phenotype. While both terms have to do with traits shown by individuals, there are differences in their meanings. What Is a Genotype? The word genotype comes from the greek words â€Å"genos† which means â€Å"birth† and â€Å"typos† which means â€Å"mark†. While the entire word â€Å"genotype† does not exactly mean â€Å"birth mark† as we think of the phrase, it does have to do with the genetics an individual is born with. A genotype is the actual genetic composition or makeup of an organism. Most genes are made up of two or more different alleles, or forms of a trait. Two of those alleles come together to make the gene. That gene then expresses whatever trait is dominant in the pair. It could also show a blending of those traits or show both traits equally, depending on which characteristic it is coding for. The combination of the two alleles is an organism’s genotype. Genotype is often symbolized using two letters. A dominant allele would be symbolized by a capital letter, while the recessive allele is represented with the same letter, but only in the lower case form. For example, when Gregor Mendel did his experiments with pea plants, he saw the flowers would either be purple (the dominant trait) or white (the recessive trait). A purple flowered pea plant may have the genotype PP or Pp. A white flowered pea plant would have the genotype pp. What Is a Phenotype? The trait that is shown due to the coding in the genotype is called the phenotype. The phenotype is the actual physical features shown by the organism. In pea plants, like in the example above, if the dominant allele for purple flowers is present in the genotype, then the phenotype would be purple. Even if the genotype had one purple color allele and one recessive white color allele, the phenotype would still be a purple flower. The dominant purple allele would mask the recessive white allele in this case. The Relationship Between the Two The genotype of the individual determines the phenotype. However, it is not always possible to know the genotype by looking only at the phenotype. Using the purple flowered pea plant example above, there is no way to know by looking at a single plant whether the genotype is made up of two dominant purple alleles or one dominant purple allele and one recessive white allele. In those cases, both phenotypes would show a purple flower. To figure out the true genotype, the family history can be examined or it can be bred in a test cross with a white flowered plant, and the offspring can show whether or not it had a hidden recessive allele. If the test cross produces any recessive offspring, the genotype of the parental flower would have to be heterozygous, or have one dominant and one recessive allele.