...I'm ready to embrace a big tech company that's not afraid to get mean.

Because Microsoft, which has chosen to sit on its great fat laurels for ten years, all the while in , is the tough businessman, while Apple and Google are sissies. Or something. It's hard to make sense of what Dash's point is here.

Over and over, [Microsoft] used brilliant technical judo to neutralize competitors so effectively, it probably could have succeeded wildly without ever crossing the lines of legality.

But you know how it is, girl! Sometimes you just gots to cross that line! Awww, yeah, baby!

The government meddling was necessary, given Microsoft's history of stretching/flouting the law, and it forced the company into some valuable concessions--like giving users more choice over their default browsers and supporting open standards for webpages. But it exacted a heavy toll on Microsoft's ability to adapt and innovate.