DoJ Pleased with MS Antitrust Progress

Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division said Thursday that Microsoft has agreed to disclose information on its Windows Server operating system. This effectively prevents any possible action by the government over concerns that Microsoft was not in compliance with the 2002 antitrust settlement.

These concerns first came to the forefront in October of last year, when U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly reprimanded the company for not moving fast enough in opening up the Windows platform.

This was followed by a DoJ filing in January that accused the Redmond giant of dragging its feet in moving towards compliance.

Under the plan, Microsoft would allow additional source code access to those companies who had already signed up to receive software protocols from the company.

Although this latest development may have settled any previous concerns, a new complaint has been filed against Windows Vista, Microsoft's next generation operating system. The complaint questioned whether manufacturers would be able to customize the first boot sequence.

"While we have not reached any conclusion as to the merits of these complaints, plaintiffs continue to gather information and monitor the situation," the government's court filing read.

To its defense Microsoft said that it had discussed the issue with all top 20 computer manufacturers and had received no complaints regarding the issue.