Microsoft trial starts again today

The ongoing Microsoft antitrust trial will resume later today with the aim of reaching a legal conclusion.The US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges that Microsoft holds a monopoly position in the desktop operating system and software market, which Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson said the company is guilty of in his so-called Findings of Fact in November 1999.

The trial will resume to try to reach a decision on how Judge Jackson's findings apply to the law.

At the beginning of this year, US news organisations reported that lawyers within the DoJ and the 19 states that took part in the trial against Microsoft have decided that a breakup is essential to curb the software giant's dominance in the operating system market.

Lawyers were recommending that Microsoft be divided into two companies: one for its Windows operating system, and another for its other software and internet businesses. Other reports indicated that the DoJ is in fact in favour of splitting Microsoft into three. One company would be Windows, the second applications, and the third would combine all its investments. That company would be a technology incubator.

The DoJ refused to comment.

In the meantime, the European Commission (EC) has also launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft - this time into its Windows 2000 operating system, which was launched last week.

The probe is examining whether Windows 2000 breaks European competition laws by allowing Microsoft to extend its dominance into the server software and ecommerce markets.