The European Union has fined Microsoft an additional $1.3 billion for what the organization is calling “clear disregard of its legal obligations” (their full statement can be found here). As Stan noted this morning, this brings total EU penalties against Microsoft to more than $2 billion. The latest fine relates specifically to Microsoft providing documentation at an “unreasonable price for workgroup servers.”
Personally, I can’t speak to Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices in the workgroup server market, but, I do know that Firefox now has 20-30% market share in web browsers, and that there are dozens of easily accessible choices for media players. This tells me that at least some of the original anti-competitive rulings against Microsoft have been remedied, although, whether or not that is due to the company changing its business practices is up for debate.
Of course, we also have Microsoft’s announcement last week about their change to more open business practices and their embrace of interoperability. But is Microsoft really changing its philosophies, or is it simply trying to remain relevant in the Web era? Today’s poll:
{democracy:98}