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Seven States Extend Microsoft Antitrust Judgment

Posted by Zonk on from the in-for-the-long-haul dept.

Technical Writing Geek writes "A number of states have moved to extend antitrust judgments against Microsoft until the year 2012. California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia are all contributing to the decision, and have released a report on the factors that lead to the extension. 'The report laments the state of OEM web browser bundling, saying that no major OEM currently distributes a browser other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE). This is important due to the rise of new middleware platforms (such as Adobe's AIR and Microsoft's own Silverlight) that can create rich, OS-independent, web-based applications.' The report is slightly self-contradictory, but raises some valid points."

5 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. District of Columbia by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    DC = !a state

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    Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
  2. What to do... by calebt3 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From the article:

    This last bit gets into the argument over Microsoft's current desktop monopoly and what, if anything, is to be done about it. Simple. Take the advice of that one EU thinktank and force OEM un-bundling.
  3. Ow! My wrist! Why, I oughta... by edraven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So the totally ineffectual measures that've been taken to punish Microsoft for misusing its illegal monopoly to eliminate or marginalize its competition are going to be ineffectual for a longer period of time? That'll show 'em.

    I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You cannot punish a corporation the same way you punish an individual, because they don't care about the same things. There's only one thing a corporation values, so there's only one thing you can take away from one: market share. Pass a measure forcing Microsoft and its subsidiaries to halve their advertising budget for, say, five years.

  4. Hedging bets by truthsearch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The states' report seems to imply that Microsoft will try to find a way to tie Silverlight to IE in the future, and leverage the 80 percent market share of IE on the desktop to try and edge out competitors like Adobe AIR. In our view, it's more likely that Microsoft has learned to accept the reality of a web application future and simply wants to make sure that it is the driving force behind its development.

    +1 Insightful

    Microsoft is hedging their bets. If their cash cows are really threatened in the near future they need a backup plan. I think they're not sure how they would profit, be it software-as-a-service or infrastructure or development tools. But they know they need to cover as many angles as possible to survive long term.

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    Developers: We can use your help.
  5. Boy... by JK_the_Slacker · · Score: 4, Funny

    What with this and the releases of Gutsy Gibbon and Leopard, this is turning out to be a bad month for furniture.

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    I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.