Hopefully, the judge won’t wimp out.

In a move that could bring Microsoft and the Justice Department closer to an approved settlement deal, a federal judge said Tuesday that both parties had complied with laws governing antitrust settlements.

How I long for the days of the real trust busters.

The plaintiff states are seeking for Microsoft to: sell a second version of Windows, from which middleware such as browsers and media players can be removed; license through auction its widespread Office software for use on competing operating systems; give away for free the source code, or blueprint, to its Internet Explorer Web browser; and carry in Windows for 10 years Sun Microsystems’ version of the Java Virtual Machine.

Unfortunately, this is only a baby step in the right direction. None of these actions are punative enough, and neither will they solve the core problem: that Microsoft is a predatory company with too much power because of its de-facto monopoly in the operating system market in conjunction with its de-facto monopoly in office productivity software. These two items must be separated for any true resolution to take place.