Republican candidates differ on outcome of Microsoft ruling

The two republican presidential candidates who campaigned in Iowa over the weekend have starkly opposing views of the federal lawsuit against computer giant Microsoft. A federal judge on Friday ruled the “Windows” computer operating system monopolizes the marketplace. G.O.P. presidential candidate Gary Bauer says Microsoft should be punished for its predatory practices.He says there are literally thousand of small companies that have been ruined by Microsoft’s “predatory” practices.Bauer says if elected, he would engage in an examination of business monopolies in the same way President Teddy Roosevelt did at the beginning of this century.But business magazine publisher Steve Forbes, also a candidate for the presidency, disagrees. Forbes says the government’s lawsuit against Microsoft was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Forbes says technology will eventually make the lawsuit obsolete. He says there’s no way you can get a monopoly for very long with the rapidly changing technology. He says the marketplace will be more successful in breaking up the monopoly than the government’s ever gonna be.Forbes ended a bus tour of the state on Saturday, greeting about one-hundred supporters gathered in downtown Des Moines.Later on Saturday night, Forbes addressed a 25-dollar-per-plate event for Iowa supporters. Bauer made his comments after speaking to the Iowa College Republicans convention in Des Moines.