5 years ago...Microsoft could be forced to unbundle Explorer

10.11.99: Microsoft may be forced to unbundle its Internet Explorer browser from the Windows operating system, according to a former US Department of Justice (DoJ) lawyer.

Robert Hauberg, former US DoJ lawyer and partner at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell, claimed that given the strength of Judge Jackson's support for the government's case, an enforced unbundling is very likely.

"Certainly unbundling would be one in a whole laundry list of options that the Judge has," he said. "I would think that in light of the testimony at trial, he would seriously consider doing that at a minimum even without having the divestiture option fully imposed," Hauberg said.

10.11.04: Microsoft's antitrust case became the longest and one of the most expensive legal cases of all time - rumbling on seemingly without end for much of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the US and Europe.

At the heart of the matter was the heated debate over what should and what shouldn't be bundled with Windows. First it was the browser - later on it became Media Player that represented the most controversial add-in to the bundle.

And still nothing is fully resolved: in the US Microsoft has still been dealing with individual states throughout this year and although the states clearly have issues with the convicted monopolist it is still seen as their monopolist - and legal action from the EU has been fiercely criticised.

The consensus to date appears to be that Microsoft has escaped lightly given the severity of some of the potential punishments suggested during the darkest days of the interminable saga. Microsoft doesn't think so - having appealed most rulings to date - including the EU decision earlier this year, which imposed a relatively nominal fine and ordered the software giant to provide a version of its operating system without Media Player.