Rival software developers complain that there is selective dissemination of information regarding the operating system's current and future functionality, requiring that they develop close relationships with Microsoft to gain access to its OS secrets. According to Andrew Schulman, author of three books on the undocumented features of Microsoft operating systems, when MS-DOS 6 came out, Microsoft's version of disk compression depended on undocumented interfaces in the OS. When Stac Electronics, a competitor, tried to use the same interfaces, Microsoft sued, asserting that Stac had misappropriated Microsoft's trade secrets. Schulman also notes that when Netscape wanted to use several undocumented Windows calls used by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, "Microsoft again claimed this was valuable inside information, which it said it would only provide to Netscape in exchange for a seat on Netscape's board of directors."

In order to address issues of future compatibility with the OS, Microsoft asks its rivals to disclose their future product plans to Microsoft. This gives Microsoft intimate information regarding its rivals' strategic plans.

Having initially ignored the Internet, Microsoft today is rapidly executing a strategy to conquer the Internet--and, especially, to control the software interface used to connect with Internet Web pages and other Internet services. One important aspect of this battle is the current "browser war" between Microsoft's free Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. At one time dozens, if not hundreds, of firms were developing Web browsers. Netscape achieved enormous market penetration by offering its browser at no charge initially, as an extended promotion. When Netscape was achieving dominance in the browser market, it sought to control Web publishing standards by incorporating proprietary extensions to the open public-domain HTML standards. This caused incompatibilities among browsers, and was controversial. Authors of Web pages wanted open standards, so that access to Web pages would not be limited by the use of a particular browser, and this pressure was effective because there was competition among browsers.

Later, as the browser technology evolved, it became clear that browsers would be a platform for an entirely new range of software applications that would run within, or be launched by, the browsers. This became even more important when Sun developed Java, a language that also permitted an entire computer program to be dynamically downloaded over the Internet and launched immediately, without the need to install programs formally.

As is often the case, Microsoft was not an early entrant or an early innovator. It entered the browser market by licensing rights to use a version of Mosaic, a browser developed with federal government funding. When Microsoft recognized that its browser was significantly inferior to Netscape's, and that Netscape was rapidly shaping Web publishing standards, Microsoft began an extremely aggressive campaign designed to completely eliminate Netscape or any other firm from the browser market. The features of Microsoft's strategy are well known:

Step 1: Microsoft is devoting enormous resources to improve the Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE). Today the MSIE is a much-improved, versatile offering. It can view Web pages using the latest multimedia features. It provides a full-featured e-mail program, an Internet newsreader, a Web-publishing tool, and dozens of other functions. It has received excellent reviews from the computer trade press.

Step 2: Microsoft gives the MSIE away free to everyone, including the corporate market, and it spends a fortune to promote its use. Microsoft pays computer manufacturers to preinstall this product on almost all new computers sold today, and it also pays for countless other promotions. It even has an agreement with Apple to distribute the MSIE.

Step 3: Microsoft is rapidly integrating the MSIE into as many applications as it can. For example, Microsoft's C++, J++, and Visual Studio programs are designed to work directly with the MSIE.

Step 4: Next year, Microsoft plans to make the MSIE an integral part of Windows 98, making it difficult or impossible not to choose to use the MSIE.

Many industry experts believe this strategy will succeed in driving Netscape out of the market, deterring future entrants, and leading to a Microsoft monopoly in the browser market. The consequences of this are immense. Microsoft will be in firm control of a wide range of standards, and it will be free to introduce many undocumented features to the platform for everything from MS Java to MS flavors of streaming audio and video.

Microsoft also will be permitted to reshape the Internet on subjects as important and diverse as surveillance, uses of copyrighted materials (a major action item for Microsoft internationally), personal privacy, and the ability of consumers to avoid commercial content, to mention a few.

Some groups, like the Consumer Project on Technology, are asking the Department of Justice to stop Microsoft from using predatory pricing of its browser and from integrating the MSIE with Windows 98. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice took a step in this direction, but many issues remain unresolved.

--James Love