Microsoft has been fighting monopoly accusations from the Department of Justice since 1990, resulting in a 28 April 2000 ruling that it must be split into separate companies.

Microsoft has been digging deep into the appeals process ever since, and while it's not over yet, the latest appeals court ruling has lit up its escape tunnel like a fourth of July fireworks display.

The ruling has also humiliated the outspoken trial judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson.

Here vnunet.com recaps the case, the comments and how the experts saw the possible ramifications from the start to today.