And yet, what will a successful lawsuit give us? The damage has already been done. For far too long, Microsoft has been left to its own devices, unchecked. While the integration of Internet Explorer within the Windows operating system was not complete when Microsoft first claimed that the two were indeed one unit, both browser and OS are now inexorably tied together.

Just ask a group of people why they use Internet Explorer as apposed to another browser. A good number of them will reply, "because it's there." They don't really care about the browser wars; they're merely spectators in a bloody conflict that is now down to the last few men. Those of us who still care (some of us vehemently) do so not so much because we are "forced" to use IE, but because of the erroneous perception that IE is on everyone's desktop, which has caused a huge number of IE-only Web sites and applications to be developed. This is far more damaging to the industry than it is to Netscape. For one thing, it precludes a future competitor from gaining a foothold in the industry, unless, like Opera, its browser offers the ability to hack the Agent header. This fools the site into believing the browser is IE. Of course, this works well for viewing sites, but it feeds the perception that just about everyone uses IE.

To be honest, the damage done to Netscape by Netscape is just as bad, if not worse, than any injury brought about by Microsoft with its whip and iron-grip on the market. Netscape failed to produce version 5.0 at a time when it was sorely needed and demanded by users. When Netscape finally offered version 6.0, the browser flopped. It was slow and buggier than a Microsoft product. And Netscape hasn't recovered from that error in judgment, even though subsequent releases of Netscape have been stable and shown improvements in performance.

If it weren't for AOL Time Warner's acquisition of Netscape in 1999, Netscape would likely be in its death throes already. Filing this lawsuit on the heels of others filed by a large number of states is unlikely to have any significant effect on the market. Netscape may be able to wrangle some cash and perhaps an icon on the desktop of OEM'd copies of Windows, but will this lawsuit change Netscape's destiny? Not significantly.