Microsoft is drawing official fire again, this time from the European Union which today started the machinery of a new antitrust case against the Washington-state based software company. The EU, prompted by competitor Sun Microsystems, alleges that the company is abusing its market position to dominate the market for software that runs servers, the powerful computers that do the heavy lifting in most computer networks. In London, Marketplace's Stephen Beard reports. That concerned Microsoft's domination of the market for PC operating systems. The Europeans, on the other hand, are now investigating claims that the company is trying to dominate server operating systems, too.
Servers are vital to the running of the Internet and therefore are a high-growth market.
But, says Barry Fox of New Scientist magazine, E.U. officials would have needed little persuading to go after Bill Gates. Microsoft is a good, soft target. People in general don't like Microsoft. They don't like Bill Gates. They don't like the way he gets off and never apologizes for any wrong.