Justice & Law Quote by Jim Barksdale

Barksdale’s line reads like corporate aikido: absorb the force of a dangerous idea (Microsoft’s dominance is “the key to our future”) and redirect it into a posture of principled restraint. The first sentence concedes the market’s mood without validating it. “Some customers and prospects” is a careful downgrading of what was, in the late-1990s browser war era, a genuine strategic panic across Silicon Valley: if Microsoft controlled the desktop and the browser, everyone else’s business could become a feature. By attributing that fear to “some” outsiders, Barksdale distances Netscape’s leadership from sounding desperate or self-interested, even as he benefits from the alarm.

Then comes the pivot: “But it’s not.” Short, blunt, almost moralistic. He’s trying to reframe Netscape’s fight not as a company trying to survive, but as a market trying to stay open. That’s why the final clause matters more than it seems. “We’re certainly supportive” is lawyerly modesty; it signals alliance without looking like the plaintiff pulling the strings. He doesn’t say, “We asked for this,” or “We need this.” He says he’s “supportive” of the Department of Justice and “the 20 states,” borrowing the legitimacy of public institutions to launder what could be read as a competitor’s grievance into a civic cause.

The subtext: Netscape can’t beat Microsoft on distribution, so it’s betting on antitrust as a second battlefield. Barksdale’s intent is to make that bet look less like strategy and more like stewardship.