unions

The Globalization Institute, a Brussels-based European Union think tank, has recommended the EU require all PCs to be sold without preloaded operating systems such as Microsoft Windows.

There is no reason why computer operating systems could not follow the same model as computer hard drives and processors, which comply with standards that allow for broad compatibility as well as competition in the market, said the report, which was submitted to the EU's regulatory body, the European Commission.

Such a policy would lead to increased competition and innovation in the area of computer operating systems, something the Globalization Institute report … Read more

It's really hard to be a monopolist these days. That's what Microsoft found when Monday the European Union slapped down its appeal to an antitrust decision made several years ago. Apparently there are a few places on earth where money can't buy Microsoft happiness. I'm glad that one of them happens to be an enormous market like Europe. According to a story on Vnunet.com:

Microsoft is now facing a record 497 million Euros fine as well as having to pay 80 percent of the legal costs of the case.

The software giant will also have to assist its rivals with third-party integration through documentation and support, and strip its media player software from a version of Windows.… Read more

It's getting to the point that Microsoft and Novell just need to get married and stop shamming the "dating dance." I'm referring, of course, to the announcement today that the two companies are formalizing "a collaboration between Microsoft and Novell with the explicit purpose of bringing Silverlight to Linux and do this in a fully supported way.

What "fully supported" means is a question that Mary Jo Foley asks, and does a good job of answering. (She also points out that this collaboration/development has been much stronger than Novell and Microsoft have been telling us.)

But the most interesting take is Tim O'Reilly's:… Read more

It's unclear whether the strike will have any impact at the journal, and it seems … Read more

This afternoon, I went over to NYC's Cooper Union to sit in on the final project presentations for the Web 2.0 Paradigms class, a hands-on course in the school's electrical engineering department taught by adjunct professor Sanford Dickert. In this course, the students--who were required to have software development experience--created their own Web applications from start to (very beta) launch, with a focus on the end user experience and what kinds of consumers would use such a service.

Here's Webware's recap of the four products that were demonstrated--a fifth team had been working on developing … Read more

WashTech, an organized labor group that is pushing Microsoft workers to unionize, is speaking out again, this time over the software maker's pay practices.

According to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report, WashTech got a hold of some documents that it claims represent Microsoft's pay plans. The paper reports that the documents appear to show no pay increase for several ranks at the bottom of Microsoft's pay scale.

"In terms of what they're paying out in annual increases to employees, they're trying to hold the line well below 3 percent a year," WashTech president Marcus … Read more