A week ago, it accused Microsoft of using the monopoly its Windows 95 software enjoys over computer operating systems to steal customers from rival Netscape's popular Internet browser. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson gave the company until Nov. 10 to file its formal response to the government's bid to hold the company in contempt for its alleged violation of the 1995 court order. He said he would decide in early December on the next steps in the case, including a hearing. The Windows operating system is used on more than 80 percent of the nation's personal computers and an even higher percentage of new computers, usually installed at the factory. But rival Netscape markets the leading Internet browser, Navigator, which has 62 percent of that market.
Browsers enable computer owners to easily locate and retrieve information on the Internet.
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