Microsoft
ORG
Microsoft
On Wednesday, Microsoft offered to give rival software companies unlimited technical support to help them develop programs that work smoothly with the Windows operating system, the company's latest effort to comply with a European Commission order and avoid daily fines of up to 2 million euros. The company previously offered to give rivals 500 hours of free technical support. The offer comes a week ahead of a hearing to determine whether Microsoft is complying with a March 2004 antitrust ruling that found it guilty of abusing the dominant position of Windows in the software market in Europe. According to the 2004 decision, Microsoft must disclose information about Windows to allow rivals to build server systems that work as well with Windows as Microsoft's own server software.