WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday the Justice Department is trying to create competition so there will be alternatives to ``robber barons,'' even though it still buys computers installed with Microsoft Windows.
Reno told her weekly press conference that competition rather than bigness is the key to choice and innovation.
Reno was asked why the Justice Department buys tens of thousands of personal computers that run Windows, instead of encouraging competition by purchasing alternate operating systems. She replied that monopolies limit choice.
``I don't think that you endorse something by purchasing it, if that's the only game in town ... in terms of an effective machine, low price, the lowest price available,'' she said.
The judge in the Microsoft antitrust case has found that the company uses its monopoly power to keep competitors at bay. The Justice Department has asked the judge to split the company in two to help create competition in the marketplace, and he is expected to rule soon on a remedy.
``America was not made the industrial giant of the world by the robber barons alone,'' Reno said. ``It was made the industrial giant of the world by competition, by encouraging new developments, by encouraging young entrepreneurs to break into the market. It's the best system I've seen so far.''