quote:

---

The Free Software Foundation has accused Microsoft of behaving as if it considers itself above the law

The Free Software Foundation Europe expressed outrage on Thursday at Microsoft's criticism of the European Commission, and of the UK expert appointed to ensure that Microsoft complies with the antitrust ruling.

---

quote:

---

Although Microsoft claims it has not been given enough time to respond to the EC's concerns, Greve believes that the opposite is true — that Microsoft has been allowed to drag its feet.

"We were forced to witness years of delays, stalling and playing for more time during which Microsoft has made no attempt to allow interoperability and competition with its competitors," he said. "Microsoft has behaved as if they consider themselves above the law and any decision by the European Commission. The aggressive stance they now take towards a Commission that was unbelievably patient with Microsoft further confirms that view."

---

quote:

---

A new front opened in the six-year war between Microsoft and the European commission last week. The endgame is uncertain, as regards both timing and outcome, but the enormous scale of the stakes are clearer: Brussels is challenging the entire basis of the group's business strategy and model. It is determined to change them.

With the US department of justice (almost) out of the picture following its 2002 settlement and most of Microsoft's once-litigious rivals either out of business or bought off, the commission sees itself as a lonely David fighting Goliath, aiming its sling at the group's quasi-monopoly. It wants to force it to face genuinely free competition.

---

quote:

---

A powerful group of technology companies that includes IBM,
Nokia and Oracle (NASDAQ RCL - news) has lodged a complaint with the
European Commission about Microsoft, which is already embroiled in a dispute with the Commission over its Windows software.

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems' (ECIS) said its complaint had drawn the Commission's attention to "anti-competitive Microsoft practices in a growing number of areas".

Some of the key complaints relate to the way that Microsoft's Windows operating system software interacts with its popular Office suite of programmes, which includes Word and Excel.

ECIS argues that software companies making alternatives to either Windows or Office cannot compete fairly, because the two Microsoft products interoperate in ways that are not available to competitors.

---

quote:

---

ECIS' other members are Opera, which makes a web browser, Linspire, a company that distributes software based on
Linux, a freely-available competitor to Windows, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT - news), the biggest Linux distributor, RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK - news), which is involved in the existing antitrust case against Microsoft, Corel and Sun Microsystems

---

quote:

---

I cannot understand any foreign government using windows software.

---

I can't understand why Canada uses it. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a made in Canada OS that used Canadian spelling?

quote:

---

I can't understand why Canada uses it. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a made in Canada OS that used Canadian spelling?

---

I guess the closest thing to it is Xandros Linux...developed by Corel's Linux team in Ottawa. Xandros HQ office is now in New York but the development team is still in Canada.

It's a "Linux for newbies"...pretty slick...but best to leave it alone as far as installing alot of stuff from the Debian repositories. If you go too crazy...and I definitely have you can "break" parts of the system.

quote:

---

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. filed a formal complaint on Thursday charging European antitrust officials colluded with its rivals during an investigation into the software giant's compliance with an earlier antitrust ruling against it.
The European Commission's antitrust chief Neelie Kroes responded by saying Microsoft would be fined if it continued to resist complying with antirust measures ordered against it.
"If we pursue the line we are following now, there will be fines and they won't be small fines," Kroes said.

---