If we're lucky, that's as bad as it gets. If not -- if our developers have done overly clever things that depend on the way IE used to handle this content -- we may have broken Web applications, have a lot more work on our hands and have business-side bosses screaming about online catalogs that are broken and orders that have stopped coming in.

No wonder we're happier when vendors throw money at problems to solve them.

Does all this mean Microsoft made the wrong decision by not paying off Eolas? Not necessarily. Microsoft chose to replace the offending technology after paying $521 million for past infringement. Nobody knows how much it would cost in the future for Microsoft -- in other words, us -- to do it the other way. But that choice is going to cost us a lot more than money.

And if you still have any doubts about why, in the real world, using a big check to make patent problems go away is so appealing -- well, we're all about to find out.

Frank Hayes, Computerworld's senior news columnist, has covered IT for more than 20 years. Contact him at frank_hayes@computerworld.com.