With W2K, we're talking of more than 10 millions line of code or so. Even after slashing the bloat, using this code is mostly untractable. It just useful for going around this or that bug of this or that API, once in a while.

I'd rather prefer MSFT to really document its APIs, its file formats (including .doc, .xls, etc.) and its protocols, and to make them open source or public domain. That would introduce a healthy yet controllable dose competition for MSFT and clean them of their monopolistic sins, but it would also place MSFT in the role of the Great Arbitrer of De Facto Standards and bring them a lot of long lost good will.

In a domain where planned obsolescence is the rule of the Game, setting the standards (and giving them away) is a very desirable place where to stand and it's nearly as efficient as close formats to maintain a quasi-monopoly. Just look at IBM, Cisco or Intel. MSFT would also sit as a benevolent dictator rather than a ruthless tyran.