![]() It can (and has been) mailed directly to an unlimited number of households. It is available through myriad retail channels. Navigator can be downloaded from the Internet. Microsoft's multiple agreements with distributors did not ultimately deprive Netscape of the ability to have access to every PC user worldwide to offer an opportunity to install Navigator. They prohibited OEMs from putting icons for third-party software (like Netscape Navigator) on the Windows desktop, and they also cut deals with PC makers, software vendors, content providers, and Internet service providers to make Internet Explorer the default browser and to lock out Netscape.Īnd yet, as the judge noted, that anti-competitive behavior failed: It was, rather, a replacement for Skype for Business (announced in 2014), which was a renaming of Lync (2010), which had succeeded Office Communicator, the client for the Office Communication Server product that went all the way back to 2005.Īs part of that Windows monopoly, Microsoft made life miserable for Netscape. Teams didn't spring into existence from thin air. After all, Slack launched in 2013, and Microsoft didn't announce Teams until 2016. The notion that Teams is a "copycat product" deliberately aping Slack is, well, interesting. They created a weak, copycat product and tied it to their dominant Office product, force installing it and blocking its removal, a carbon copy of their illegal behavior during the 'browser wars.' Slack is asking the European Commission to take swift action to ensure Microsoft cannot continue to illegally leverage its power from one market to another by bundling or tying products. More on those charges in a minute, but first let's focus on this doozy from Slack, which explicitly calls out the 1990s-era antitrust action: To prove it, they delivered a browser-free version of Windows 95 that was "so broken its only feature was an error message." And Microsoft executive Jim Allchin delivered cringeworthy testimony that didn't help Microsoft's case. Microsoft argued that removing Internet Explorer from Windows would break the operating system. (It's worth noting that this tying was only one of several anti-competitive behaviors alleged in the suit.)Īnd the part about blocking the ability to remove Teams is also a callback to one of the most notorious bits of testimony in that trial. Department of Justice and the state attorneys general who brought the case argued that Microsoft had illegally tied its Internet Explorer browser to its dominant Windows product. Illegal tying, of course, was one of the core complaints in United States v. Nextcloud originally made an official complaint to the EU Directorate-General earlier in 2021 and is now asking the European Commission to ensure that Microsoft doesn't, in its eyes, abuse its position in the operating system arena.Microsoft has illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers. The Register has contacted Microsoft regarding Nextcloud's complaint, and will update should the company respond. Slack slung a competition sueball in 2020 as it battled Microsoft Teams, and last month a report was published by the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) calling for the licensing antics of "legacy" software players (such as Microsoft) to be brought to heel. Only EU can help us, pleads Slack as it slings competition complaint against Microsoft TeamsĪlthough things quietened down for Microsoft somewhat in the decade after the infamous browser wars debacle, complaints about its behaviour have been increasing in recent times.EU digital rules must consider anti-competitive licensing terms, say cloud sellers.Regulators on three continents probing Nvidia's $40bn purchase of Arm, CFO confirms. ![]() Companies toiling away the most on LibreOffice code complain ecosystem is 'beyond utterly broken'.Privacy Sandbox saga continues: UK watchdog extracts more commitments from Google over ad tech. ![]() "Big Tech's actions," he said, "based on their monopoly power in the operating system area, force consumers to use proprietary software, thus reducing their freedom and digital rights." Nextcloud's coalition includes The Document Foundation (of LibreOffice fame), whose chairman Lothar Becker said that it was up to European citizens to select their productivity tools.
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