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Microsoft Accused of "Disobedience" and "Jerry-Rigging" Products

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

The US Justice Department has accused Microsoft of "disobedience" and "jerry-rigging" its products in response to a Federal judge's order to allow personal computer makers to license Windows without loading Internet Explorer. The Justice Department proposed using the "Add/Remove Programs" feature in Windows 95 to unbundle the browser program, but Microsoft claims this would cripple recent versions of Windows. The company has offered PC makers three options: a two-year-old version of Windows, a current version of Windows that would be "totally crippled" by removing Explorer, or the current version of Windows bundled with Explorer.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Justice Department accused Microsoft of "disobedience" and "jerry-rigging" its products in response to a Federal judge's order to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows.
  • The department proposed using the "Add/Remove Programs" feature in Windows 95 to unbundle the browser program, but Microsoft claims this would cripple recent versions of Windows.
  • Microsoft has offered PC makers three options: a two-year-old version of Windows, a current version of Windows that would be "totally crippled" by removing Explorer, or the current version of Windows bundled with Explorer.
  • Carl Shapiro, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said that Microsoft is not playing ball and that the company is making the process unnecessarily complex.
  • Microsoft's World Wide Web site stated that removing Internet Explorer was not a daunting technical challenge, contradicting the company's earlier claims in court.
  • Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson used the add-remove feature to get rid of Explorer and instructed Microsoft to appear in court on January 13 to show why Explorer could not be removed.

Statistics:

  • Microsoft claims that deleting 3 percent of the Explorer program would damage Windows' ability to run services like AT&T Worldnet and Prodigy.
  • The "Add/Remove Programs" feature deletes only about 3 percent of programming language in Explorer.
  • The first version of Windows 95, shipped in August 1995, had programming language from Explorer embedded in the operating system.

Sources:

  • Government filing in United States District Court in Washington
  • Microsoft's World Wide Web site
  • Testimony of Carl Shapiro, professor at the University of California at Berkeley
  • Testimony of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
  • Testimony of Microsoft's senior vice president for law and corporate affairs, William H. Neukom
  • Testimony of Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray
  • Justice Department statement

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