Microsoft faces backlash from rivals

Microsoft was hit this week by a lawsuit accusing it of breach of contract in its use of Java, the promising new computer language invented by Sun Microsystems. The dispute is about more than that, however. David Usborne predicts that attacks on Microsoft by its rivals are bound to multiply.

Facing multiplying claims that his giant company, Microsoft, is deliberately abusing its dominant position in the PC industry, Bill Gates yesterday moved to deny allegations levelled against it by rival Sun Microsystems.

Mr Gates, who is visiting Switzerland, was responding to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday which accuses Microsoft of breaching a contract for the use of Sun's new computer language, Java. Microsoft, the Sun suit says, is corrupting Java in an effort to halt its spread as a common platform.

"The notion that Sun says that we are not being compatible, that is just not factual," Mr Gates shot back. "Somebody should just run the test and see. We do a better job passing those Java tests than Sun or anybody else."

Sun is claiming that Microsoft has subtly altered specifications in the Java language that it is deploying for a new version of its Microsoft Explorer browser programme. By doing so, it goes on, Microsoft hopes to fracture the market for Java and weaken its appeal as a system that is designed for use on all kinds of computers linked to networks or external servers.

While the dispute is itself potentially damaging for Microsoft - Sun is vowing to withhold all new Java technology from Mr Gates until the dispute is settled - many industry observers see it as part of a gathering campaign to curb the perceived hegemony of the Seattle-based company.

"Nothing breeds dislike like great success," noted Humphrey Taylor, whose polling organisation, Louis Harris & Associates recently identified Microsoft as the company most admired in America, surpassing AT&T.

While Microsoft successfully settled a federal investigation into suspected anti-competitive practices in 1994, a range of individual US states have recently launched their own probes into the company. While the dominance of Microsoft in the PC arena is almost a given - roughly 80 per cent of computers run the Windows operating system - some fear Mr Gates intends gaining equivalent leverage in other areas, such as the media and the Internet.

The Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, is among those looking closely at Microsoft's strategy. "All I'm saying is that we've received complaints that it is attempting to use its power to gain access or dominance in other markets," he said.

Anxiety is also growing in Washington again, where hearings into the extraordinary clout of Microsoft are set for next month. Leading the campaign to query its power is the consumer rights advocate, Ralph Nader. "Microsoft wants it all," he said. "You name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships".