Last September Microsoft were fined €500,000,000 by the European Union for anti-competitive practices. And now they're heading for court again. This time the EU are looking at (1) whether Microsoft unfairly ties Internet Explorer into Windows, and (2) issues concerning the interoperability of Microsoft software with rival products. That last one's a biggie because it looks like including Microsoft Office's supposedly 'open' XML format. According to a spokesman for Microsoft's opponents -- which include Nokia, Sun, Adobe and Real Networks -- “It’s a case which might transform the whole software industry.”

After nine years in litigation, a Microsoft spokesman responded that, “We’d rather just focus on making good software.” But they can't even seem to do that. Still, maybe it explains why Vista's soooo bad. It was cobbled together by a bunch of lawyers during court case recesses...

If you're hanging out for Vista Service Pack 1 to fix your woes, you may still be hanging out after it's released. According to an exo.blog posting titled Vista SP1 a Performance Dud:

Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. Extensive testing by the exo.performance.network research staff shows that SP1 provides no measurable relief to users saddled with sub-par performance under Vista.

Ooops.

Oh by the way, Microsofties. If your bank account's looking a bit more depleted than you expected after Christmas, you might have been the victim of yet another killer virus. This one's called Mebroot and specialises in stealing internet banking logins. According to the BBC, "few commercial anti-virus packages currently detect its presence".