Roy Schestowitz wrote:
Raining on Microsoft's parade
,----[ Quote ]
| We filed our complaint with the Commission last February, over Microsoft's
| refusal to disclose their Office file formats (.doc, .xls, and .ppt), so it
| could be fully compatible and interoperable with others' software, like
| Linux.
|
| [...]
|
| And in July, we updated our complaint to reflect our concerns with
| Microsoft's "open XML." (Microsoft's Office Open XML is a default document
| format for its Office 2007 suite.) And last month, we supplemented that
| information with concerns we had for .Net 3.0 (software designed to allow
| Vista applications to run on XP and older-generation operating systems).
`----
http://news.com.com/Raining+on+Microsofts+parade/2008-1001_3-6154511.html
One among several formal complaints, some of which call for Vista to be
illegalised in Europe.
This quotation was interesting:
| Do feel a sense of deja vu with this latest complaint the ECIS has
| submitted to the Commission? Do you think it will ever end?
|
| Vinje: The answer to that question lies in Microsoft's hands. I think
| part of their strategy is to wear everyone out--their adversaries, the
| Commission, the courts, the users. They use their vast resources to
| delay things as long as possible and to wear people down so they'll
| give up.
Intent with the delays are to wear the opponents down, not too much
different than the Vista astroturf choir that just signed on recently,
joining their barbershop septet.
Related:
Microsoft rivals file second European complaint
,----[ Quote ]
| ...Microsoft was preventing access to Vista's programming interfaces
| and hindering the development of compatible products, thus repeating
| anti-competitive violations the commission had identified three
| years ago in a previous operating system.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7bAF5B8FB2-488F-4468-80B8-21F6EEE223E3%7d&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo
http://tinyurl.com/2ybdot
I find it interesting that companies complaining to EU regarding new
Vista operating system violating antitrust laws are Adobe Inc., Nokia
Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and
RealNetworks Inc.
No doubt there are others, but these are the key ones.
Software rivals say Microsoft's Vista illegal in Europe
,----[ Excerpt ]
| Software manufacturers, citing 2004 European Commission finding,
| contend the operating system violates server laws in Europe.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/26/news/international/bc.vista.microsoft.eu.reut/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
This is of interest:
| The European Commission found in 2004 that Microsoft used its
| dominance to muscle out RealNetworks and other makers of audio and
| video streaming software and that it made its desktop Windows
| deliberately incompatible with rivals' server software.
|
| "Microsoft has clearly chosen to ignore the fundamental principles of
| the Commission's March 2004 decision," said Simon Awde, chairman of
| the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS).
|
| The group of complainants includes IBM, Nokia, Sun Microsystems,
| Adobe, Corel, Oracle, RealNetworks, Red Hat, Linspire and Opera.
I was right, there is Linspire, Opera and no doubt others.
'Microsoft broke anti-trust agreement,' prosecutors claim
,----[ Quote ]
| It's claimed Microsoft's engineers used at least 500 undocumented APIs
| to ensure Microsoft's applications worked better with Windows than
| those of competitors.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/18/microsoft_breached_antitrust/
It will not surprise me if Microsoft fails to meet the EU documentation
requirements they submitted last November, when I read this:
| One stipulation of the 2002 settlement between Microsoft and the DoJ
| is for Microsoft to document all APIs and Windows Communications
| protocols for the benefit of third parties.
|
| It's a condition Microsoft has been consistently poor at meeting.
| Officials regularly monitoring Microsoft's compliance under the
| Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) repeatedly criticise
| Microsoft for its slow progress and for failing to make adequate
| documentation available. They've also forced Microsoft to
| substantially change the program, relaxing license pricing and
| wording.
FLOSS Weekly 14: Jeremy Allison of Samba
,----[ Quote ]
| 'In the section of the interview from around 33m30s to 39m00 Jeremy
| Allison reports how he was told that the Microsoft team implementing
| SMB2 were ordered to "f**k with Samba".'
`----
http://www.twit.tv/floww14
It may explain why Microsoft was reluctant to give the EU timely and
to-the-point documentation. It would not surprise me if SMB aka CIF
protocol has some "gotcha's" built into it, which could be subterfuged
with the voluminous documentation. I recall another advocate mentioning
about CIF possibly having "built-in Halloween code". We will see as EU
findings unfold.
Microsoft used undocumented Windows APIs - Iowa testimony
,----[ Quote ]
| 'All I can say is holy API batman...I'm not kidding...we are talking
| about literally 500-800 APIs here, no joke,' he wrote.
|
| Alepin had earlier claimed that Microsoft ran special demonstration
| programs whose sole purpose was to crash rival products and alleged
| that the company had subverted developers who used Microsoft's
| version of Java 'thinking they were developing multi-platform
| applications, but were actually developing Windows-specific
| applications'.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/101947/microsoft-used-undocumented-windows-apis-iowa-testimony.html
This caught my attention:
| The Iowa case - Comes v Microsoft - is attempting to show that
| Microsoft's business practices unfairly harmed consumers. The case has
| enjoyed widespread publicity after the plaintiffs submitted a 2004
| email 'rant' from Microsoft executive Jim Allchin to CEO Steve Ballmer
| and chairman Bill Gates deploring the then-state of Windows
| development and saying that were he not a Microsoft employee he would
| buy a Mac. Apple CEO Steve Jobs added the quotation to his Macworld
| keynote last week, joking that the staff of Apple's Seattle store
| should be on the lookout for Allchin.
Perhaps Allchin may become an MVP for Apple? :-)
--
Cheers, Rafael
|
|
