Highlights of initial Microsoft findings

		Latest story
		Full text of ruling
		Audio/Video
		Q&A: What does this mean?
		About the judge
		Timeline
		Index of coverage
		Do computer users need protection from Microsoft?

Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's 207-page "findings of fact" includes the following key points:

Microsoft has monopoly power over the market for PC operating systems.

Microsoft has repeatedly harmed consumers by threatening retaliation against computer makers that want to offer customers something other than the Windows operating system.

Companies that help Microsoft maintain its monopoly power are rewarded by paying less for Windows than companies that do not.

Microsoft can easily maintain its monopoly power by making sure that software that runs on Windows will run nowhere else.

Because Microsoft controls 95% or more of the market for PC operating systems, software developers face steep financial penalties if they develop software for other operating systems.

Since software developers experience lower profits with other operating systems, products such as Apple's Macintosh are relegated to niche markets only.

Linux, an alternative operating system that is currently popular on Wall Street, shows no sign of producing the thousands of easy-to-use software applications needed to make consumers adopt it in numbers sufficient to compete with Windows.

Compiled by USATODAY.com's Will Rodger