Jean-Louis Gassée (CEO of Be, Inc.) - Manufacturing Consent:

'Perhaps I should call this column "Manufacturing Public Opinion," rather than "Manufacturing Consent." The idea for it occurred to me as I read the opinion "polls" taken right after last Friday's announcement of the DOJ's proposed remedies in the MS anti-trust trial.'

I totally agree with JLG's argument here. Many normal people (ie: life-long Windows-only users, non-programmers) are scared to see Microsoft broken up because they don't know there are alternatives, or don't know what the alternatives are like.

Microsoft's generation-long monopoly has brainwashed the public, and it needs to end. Now.