Here's something Microsoft probably didn't want more of: government oversight of Windows development. Windows 7 already is being reviewed by U.S. government technical appointees, something many Microsoft executives probably couldn't have much imagined happening a year ago. Under the terms of Microsoft's November 2001 Justice Department settlement and final court judgment issued about a year later, a government-sanctioned "Technical Committee" has overseen Windows development. The TC is responsible for ensuring that Microsoft complies with the terms of the final judgment, investigating complaints about Microsoft abuses and regularly reporting on the company's compliance. The TC required some changes before the operating system's release. Each quarter, the Justice Department, Microsoft and states' attorneys general file a joint "status report," largely based on the TC's activities. The process should have mostly ended on Nov. 12. But Google (and some other Microsoft competitors) requested an extension, and U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly gave it to them: two more years of government oversight.

Sigh, damn the government. Let Microsoft succeed or fail on their own merit. Now if Windows 7 is a flop because of under-development, stripped features, and programming delays, they can blame it all on the government as a crutch. And why shouldn't we believe Microsoft? The government has a sure-bet track record of royally screwing up everything from education, to health care, to something as simple as road construction. The government screws everything up and now they are becoming a scapegoat for MS to fail on Windows 7, possibly launching a massive lawsuit on the US government itself. Either that, or the government is going to bribe them with a bunch of taxpayers money and legal loopholes, possibly backing them for another monopoly status, for the exchange that MS integrates monitoring software into Windows 7. The government wants to remove all forms of privacy from the internet, they tried it with the Patriot Act, they threatened Google multiple times over it, and who's willing to bet they are going to pressure Microsoft into giving in?