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6th September 2001 |
THE RACE IS ON |
Brian Grainger |
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The race is on between Microsoft and the legislators! Microsoft announced the formal release date of the next version of Windows, Windows XP, a little while ago. The date is October 25th. However, with the appeal in the antitrust case completed Microsoft have got jittery. It was my intention to give a breakdown of what the appeal court agreed with from the original verdict and what they rejected. However the legal proceedings are very detailed to read and it has taken me longer than expected, despite the interesting content. The important bit is that they agreed that Microsoft was a monopoly and that they acted in an anti-competitive manner in some, but not all, of the ways identified in the original hearing. The appeal court decided that, since they rejected some of the original findings and that the original judge acted as if he was biased against Microsoft, a new judge be appointed and that the penalties on Microsoft be reconsidered. Microsoft tried, unsuccessfully, to get this rejected or the remedies delayed. However, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was appointed recently and she wasted no time in getting things moving. Written arguments have to be presented by September 14, prior to a court hearing on 21st September. Observers think that a possible outcome may be that changes in Windows XP are requested. Microsoft are clearly worried, since they have been doing all they can to get it released before the court passes judgement. Although the official release date is still 25th October the master copies of the release code were passed over to major computer manufacturers in a small ceremony recently. It does not normally take two months between hand over and new PCs to come out and some commentators are saying this will be the first time Microsoft have released something BEFORE the expected date! If this is not enough several parties are looking at bringing fresh injunctions against Microsoft to complain about the incorporation of products such as Media Player and Passport within Windows XP. Finally, the European Union is looking to see if it can bring anti-competitive charges against Microsoft. My own view is unchanged. The only people to benefit from the court actions are lawyers. There is little benefit to the consumer if Microsoft is split into 2 as originally requested. If you do not like Windows XP, and I have grave doubts about it and the new Microsoft licensing strategy, then don't buy it! If it comes on your new PC then replace it with what you want. Put back your old version of Windows 98 or try Linux. STOP PRESS On the day that I wrote the above the US Department of Justice decided to make two announcements. The first announcement was that it will no longer seek to break up Microsoft and would push to clear the problem as soon as possible, two to three months was mentioned. As the appeal court dropped strong hints that the Microsoft break up proposal was not really considered sensible it seems the DOJ has finally seen the light. What is interesting is that they want to close out the case. One wonders if, with America in recession, the Bush presidency has finally brought pressure to bear. Of course, two to three months will be too late to stop Windows XP and Microsoft will have won the race. The second announcement was that the DOJ would not pursue the claim that Microsoft illegally tied Internet Explorer with Windows. The appeal court remanded this claim anyway, (neither agreeing with it or rejecting it and telling the new judge to look at it again), so again the DOJ has seen the light. Clearly, this setting aside of one of the major bones of contention of the original case is aimed at speeding up the conclusion to the whole sorry business. I eagerly await the outcome from Judge Kollar-Kotelly. |
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