Microsoft faces additional anti-trust action in Europe. Microsoft was already in hot water with regulators for fighting disaggregation by refusing to disclose how its networking programs work. Now a new anti-trust complaint against Microsoft targets its secretive interface to programs such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Other companies can't interoperate with those programs because Microsoft refuses to release crucial details.
And there's nicely ironic news here in the US as well. As I discuss in the book, Microsoft is attempting to stave off inroads by Linux; lately their FUD ("Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt") campaign seems to have picked up steam again as Microsoft hints at intellectual-property problems with Linux. Plenty of people speculate that SCO, which is suing IBM over Linux intellectual property, was funded by Microsoft to launch the lawsuit against IBM to an attempt to smear Linux.
And now Microsoft finds itself in the spotlight in the SCO case. IBM has subpoenaed Microsoft for documents relating the SCO transaction. Despite cheering from the crowd, given Microsoft's history in court, I very much doubt that any documents that Microsoft really wants to conceal will ever show up in court.
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