Fresh from antagonizing the Department of Justice, winding up 3Com Corp, and generally annoying the heck out of everyone, Microsoft Corp’s top brass have been crawling all over the US dailies in a damage limitation exercise. EVP Steve Ballmer’s been on the horn discussing the company’s intent to lighten up, because as more than one op ed writer has observed, software giant’s public image has been transformed from Poster Boy for American industry to Robber Baron in a few short months. Public and media opinion is deemed to have turned against Redmond in its battle with the Department of Justice over the inclusion of Internet Explorer in the Windows 95. Ballmer’s admits We see for the first time that customers are troubled about Microsoft. Perhaps for the first time it has become evident that what might be in Microsoft’s interest is not necessarily in users’ best interests. Previously it seemed that anything Microsoft did was perceived generally as being ‘good technology.’ Even Wall Street’s bemused. BancAmerica Robertson Stephens says it’s unclear why Microsoft insists on provoking the Department of Justice and is risking antagonizing the court with its antics. The reality is that few OEMs in the price competitive PC market have chosen to pay additional license fees to install Netscape’s Navigator browser on their systems when Microsoft’s IE is included with the Windows 95 license. All Microsoft needs to do is remove the clause requiring IE’s installation from the licensing agreement. Ballmer uttered some words about an internal code of conduct to help Microsoft present a sweeter image but didn’t elaborate.
