But Microsoft thinks it just needs to do a little better at competition. A tweak here, a small fix of anticompetitive behavior there.

Wrong. Things have changed. A dozen legalistic "principles" are nice, but what Microsoft needs are action items -- and big ones at that.

So in the interest of lighting a fire under Microsoft and its rivals, here are 12 suggestions that would really promote competition at Microsoft:

-- Break up Windows. Do less integration, not more. Get rid of the monolithic structure and the dependencies it produces, and the complexity and fragility those dependencies create. Make Windows so modular that competitors can plug in their own versions of your features. Then make your features so good, no one will want the competition's.

-- Get that neat new stuff out of Microsoft Research's labs and on the street. Microsoft loves to talk about innovation. Show us some.