The Microsoft corporation is once again being sued for doing what Microsoft just can't seem to stop doing: using Windows and now its new operating system, Vista, to create products that give it a distinct advantage over the competition. Nobody but Microsoft knows the code for the operating system, so nobody else can create products that are as compatible with it.

This time all the big players are lining up, including Sun Microsystems and Oracle. They're siding with the irate Europeans, demanding access to that advantageous code.

And only recently we heard similar threats from Norton and McAfee, who have been excluded from the core code, while, we notice, Microsoft has recently introduced its own security program.

Well, suits may come and go, but they're all part of an overall question. What chance is there that Microsoft will stop behaving like Microsoft?

But let's ask the most incriminating question. If any of the competitors were in the same position as Microsoft, would they behave any differently?

And just to give ourselves a real fright, let's imagine an even more troublesome scenario. What if Microsoft was not an American company?

Can you imagine the hat-in-hand foot shuffling its competitors would have to do then? Why, the prospect is almost enough to moderate your annoyance at the software giant's lumbering steps, as it crushes one competitor after another under its big fat foot.