The Trials of Microsoft: An overview

Microsoft is now battling to hold onto its dominance - and possibly survival - on two fronts.

Trial #1: In May this year, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and 20 states filed an anti-trust suit against Microsoft, alleging that the software giant had abused its monopoly power by bullying competitors and closing down innovation. They attacked Windows 98, saying the integration of the operating system (OS) and the browser gave it an unfair advantage over Internet rivals such as Netscape.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has bumped into the DoJ. The US government's anti-trust unit prohibited Microsoft's 1994 attempt to acquire software house Intuit - a merger that would have been the largest in software history.

Now the DoJ is calling its witnesses in the trial of the decade and the accusations of Microsoft's bullying tactics are mounting up from IT industry stalwarts. Apple says Microsoft moved to sabotage its QuickTime video technology by altering its own ActiveMovie software to disable QuickTime.

Intel has testified that Microsoft threatened to drop support for Intel's MMX chip if the company continued with a $500m Internet software project. And we all know Netscape's line: Microsoft abused its monopoly position to force Netscape out of the browser market. In the words of Intel executive Steven McGeady, Microsoft wanted to "cut off the air supply" to Netscape Communications by offering its own Internet software for free.

As the prosecution still has the stand, we won't hear much of Microsoft's side for a couple of weeks.

Trial #2: Sun Microsystems has taken Microsoft to court in California. The companies have fallen out over Java, with Sun alleging that Microsoft has made a proprietary technology out of its "write once, run anywhere" language. Microsoft claims it had an understanding with Sun that permitted a tweaking of Java to make it run better with Windows. Sun denies this.

Sun has won a preliminary victory. In March, a judge forced Microsoft to remove the Java logo - a steaming coffee cup - from Internet Explorer and all related products, recognising that Microsoft's Java is a different animal from Sun's.

Sun's position was looking good, until last week, when a coalition of 14 other Java developers - including HP, Siemens, and, you guessed it, Microsoft - revolted over Sun's alleged hyper-control of Java. The companies are currently waiting for a decision on Sun's request that Microsoft includes 100 per cent pure Java in Windows 98 and its Java development tools.

Neither trial will be over when it's over, of course. Rumour has it that Judge Jackson - the ruling judge in the anti-trust case - leans towards the DoJ's side of the story, which means Microsoft will be back for Round 2 in the appeals court.

The DoJ wants to skip the appeals court and jump straight to the Supreme Court for a quicker resolution - but it's still going to be sometime in 2000 before we have a definitive answer. Hopefully Sun will see a relatively quicker answer to its Java case.

With a company as powerful and as innovative as Microsoft, these two trials won't be the last. Windows CE is taking off, and Symbian - the mobile alliance between Psion, Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola - is unlikely to be content with Gates extending his influence even further.

From a computer on every desktop, to Microsoft in every pocket? Not if the DoJ has its way.

Can't get enough of that wonderful Microsoft stuff? Check these out:
www.mercurycenter.com/business/microsoft/trial/: A virtual courtroom, daily coverage and even a lawyer to put it all in context, all from the heart of Silicon Valley.

www.usdoj.gov/atr/index.html: The US Department of Justice, anti-trust division. All the evidence, and all of Bill Gates' testimony, all the time.

www.seattletimes.com/news/technology/index.html: Seattle's own daily coverage of its most famous resident.

www.microsoft.com/misc/inv_howuhelp.htm: A chance to voice your support for Microsoft - who to email on the company's behalf.

http://java.sun.com/lawsuit/: Details of Sun's fight to hang on tooth and nail to Java.