The nine states that did not sign the proposed deal have argued
that the settlement proposal does not go far enough to ensure that
companies can compete against Microsoft's market dominance. They
drafted their own set of requirements that were revised and argued
before Judge Kollar-Kotelly.
Three months of hearings in the US District Court for the District
of Columbia were held to determine whether these remedy requests
should be imposed on Microsoft beyond what it has already agreed
to.
The suing states believe Microsoft should offer a "modular" version
of Windows stripped of all the software code for its middleware
products so that alternative applications can be used instead.
For example, the stripped-down version could be shipped with a
Netscape browser and a Real Player in place of Internet Explorer
and Windows Media Player. The unbundled version should also be sold
at a lower cost. Microsoft has complained that removing middleware
code from the operating system would "cripple" other aspects of
Windows and has argued that complying with such an order would
force it to pull Windows off the market.
The states want Microsoft to disclose certain technologies and APIs
to software makers and partners that go beyond those it has already
agreed to disclose, with the goal of making Windows compatibility
even more easily achievable.
Additionally, the states asked the court to make Microsoft agree
not to engineer its projects in a way that would knowingly degrade
the performance of competing applications.
Another requirement is forcing Microsoft to make its popular Office
desktop productivity software suite available for competing
operating systems, including Linux and Macintosh.
Although Microsoft already does this to a certain extent, the
states are asking that Microsoft auction off the technology to a
third-party software company that would be responsible for porting
the Office software to other operating systems, in addition to
selling and marketing those versions. Microsoft would be able to
collect royalties from those vendors.
The states want Microsoft to disclose and license the source code
of its Internet Explorer Web browser to third-party developers so
they can better develop applications that take advantage of the Web
browsing software.
Another requirement put forward is the distribution of a
full-featured JVM (Java virtual machine) with every version of its
operating system and Web browser software to ensure that the latest
Java applications will run on Windows. Microsoft ships its own JVM
with Windows; however it is based on three-year-old technology.
Microsoft recently disclosed it would stop shipping Java on
Windows.
The states have asked for expansion of uniform licensing policies
to require Microsoft to license Windows to OEMs at a uniform cost
that is published and not offer discounts to manufacturers that
agree to a special partnership with Microsoft.
The last requirement is that Microsoft should be forced to continue
offering licenses for older versions of Windows, as well as to
continue offering technical support for existing versions. The
requirement aims to benefit PC makers so they can sell computers
with the operating system version of their choice.