mikedee - 1:18 am on Feb 28, 2008 (gmt 0)

As I understand it, this is about Microsoft using its monopoly position as a provider of desktop operating systems to unfairly leverage its offerings in other markets.

This is why Apple can bundle Safari, Microsoft is the only one who have a monopoly status. Like it or not this means they are subjected to anti-trust laws. These laws were set up to protect free trade and competition and that is exactly what they are doing (in the EU anyway). It is about much more than bundling, it is about Microsoft actively abusing their monopoly to prevent competition.

Notepad is not a good argument because it is a very very basic piece of software. If they included a full-blown copy of Word in an attempt to see off Open Office and make sure their OOXML format is dominant then they will be up in court again.

You do not need Microsoft cooperation for writing user apps like Netscape, but documentation is vital if you are trying to reverse engineer the SMB or Active Directory protocols. In the past Microsoft has changed this protocol to deliberately hold back competition (Samba and others). This is using their desktop monopoly to expand into the file sharing market.