5 years ago...No substitute for Windows in Compaq House

18.02.99: There is no commercially viable alternative to installing Windows on consumer PCs, a Compaq executive told the Microsoft antitrust trial yesterday.

Defence witness John Rose, a senior vice president at Compaq, told Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that consumers demand Windows software and Compaq believes the Microsoft operating system (OS) is the best choice for desktops.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, Rose's support for Windows only helped to prove the prosecution's point. When asked directly if there is a viable alternative to Windows on consumer machines, Rose said there is not.

Judge Jackson also asked Rose if Compaq had considered other OS in the wake of a sharp price increase from Microsoft. He said it had not.

18.02.04: What a difference five years makes. For starters, the most obvious point to make is that Compaq is no longer around. In fact Microsoft's antitrust wrangling survived longer in to the 21st century than the Compaq brand.

And it's a trend the EU is keen to encourage, drawing up guidelines for governments looking to make the switch to open source.