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Thursday, Aug. 6, 1998
`Software sabotage' might be investigated
Some Microsoft programs disable rival systems when installed, critics say
By TED BRIDIS
Associated PressWASHINGTON -- Mark Alberding, a college student in San Francisco, was perplexed: His computer running Windows 95 was working fine until he installed some popular multimedia software called QuickTime.
Suddenly, whenever he double-clicked to look at any of the hundreds of digital photographs on his hard-drive, his machine launched the new QuickTime software from Apple Computer instead of a rival Microsoft program he had been using to view pictures.
This sometimes happens with personal computers. Ill-mannered new programs clash with old ones. The software ``victims'' can be programs from any vendor, even Microsoft. But what had been a common and fairly esoteric technical annoyance is a new focus in the landmark debate over whether Microsoft unfairly uses its enormous influence to stifle competition in the high-tech industry.
In Alberding's case, Microsoft's program stopped working. But the company's toughest critics say that Microsoft's own software too often is the victor, not the victim, in battles with rival programs. They want the Justice Department -- already suing Microsoft in a broad antitrust lawsuit -- also to investigate whether the software maker is deliberately trying to stamp out rivals using a sort of software sabotage.
Alberding suspects that in his case, Apple's QuickTime established itself as the default software to view his pictures, supplanting the viewer programs from Microsoft and other companies.
``It basically set itself up as the default,'' Alberding said.
``Sometimes when you install the most innocent-looking applications, all kinds of silly stuff happens,'' said Mark Stotzer, a support engineer for about 200 computer users at a California textbook publishing company. ``I don't know how normal users can get anything to work after installing this stuff.''
In Washington, executive Rob Glaser of Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc. fueled the debate when he accused rival Microsoft of deliberately designing some of its newest software to ``break'' his own popular product, which lets people hear audio and watch video over the Internet.
In a dramatic demonstration during a Senate hearing last month, Glaser showed his own Real Player G2 software working perfectly on a computer. But it failed with an error message after he installed Microsoft's new Media Player.
In that case, Microsoft's player not only tried to take over the duties of playing audio and video files, it went belly-up because, unlike the G2 player, it's designed to recognize only the earliest types of RealNetworks audio and video data.
It was as if your stereo's CD player suddenly decided it would try to play all your eight-track tapes.
The largely sympathetic Senate panel appeared indignant.
``I would think that a responsible corporation would know better than to deliberately disable a competitor's product,'' said Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, calling it ``something the Justice Department has to take seriously.''
Microsoft's engineers blamed a mistake in Glaser's own software. They detailed what they called a faulty entry that RealNetworks makes in the Windows Registry, a repository of system settings, and they've since noted that RealNetworks quietly fixed the problem in software it released last week.
Mike Elgan, the editor for Windows Magazine, complains the whole incident showed that Washington doesn't understand technology issues: ``Hatch wouldn't know a registry key if it bit him in the gavel,'' Elgan said.
Glaser stands his ground, although his company's stock has lost one-fifth its value since his testimony. And one company that complained with Glaser about Microsoft's new Media Player, Xing Technologies, has retracted its statements.
Meanwhile, Glaser and some of Microsoft's biggest rivals -- including Netscape Communications and Sun Microsystems -- want new industry-wide principles to let computer users decide which programs as they're installed will take control of common data files.
Alberding, the college student, never got his problem completely solved despite his tinkering and a request for help on the Internet. He's all for the new industry plan. ``That certainly makes sense, doesn't it?'' he says.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web