Three attempts at “de-Wintelization”: Japan’s TRON project, the US government’s suits against Wintel, and the entry of Java and Linux

The dominance over personal computing technology by the Microsoft OS and the Intel MPU, or ‘Wintel’, has been a long-standing concern of the government and the marketplace. In the past 15 years, there have been at least three attempts to challenge the Wintel monopoly. In comparing these three attempts at de-Wintelization, this paper raises interrelated issues about innovation: (1) the path-dependent nature of innovation, especially that due to network externalities, (2) the balance between property rights and antitrust laws, and (3) the relevance of government intervention in these areas. It also examines different types of R&D organization.