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Critics of Microsoft say the company uses EEE to drive competitors out of business by forcing them to use inferior technology, while Microsoft controls the dominant technology.

1 Microsoft, the Internet, and other standards

Some use EEE to describe Microsoft's perceived strategy toward the Internet and other standards, in particular by those who see such a strategy as unfair competition.

The three stages of the EEE strategy appear to be unfolding as follows:

1. Embrace: Microsoft publicly announces that they are going to support a standard. They assign employees to work with the standards bodies, such as the W3C and the IETF.
2. Extend: They do support the standard, at least partially, but start adding Microsoft-only extensions of the standard to their products. They argue that they are trying only to add value for their customers, who want them to provide these features.
3. Extinguish: Through various means, such as driving use of their extended standard through their server products and developer tools, they increase use of the proprietary extensions to the point that competitors who do not follow the Microsoft version of the standard cannot compete. Unfortunately, the Microsoft version uses proprietary technologies such as ActiveX that places competitors at a distinct disadvantage. The Microsoft standard then becomes the only standard that matters in practical terms, because it allows the company to control the industry by controlling the standard.

Evidence held up in support of this view of Microsoft's policies include the Halloween documents, a series of confidential, internal Microsoft memos related to dealing with Linux and open source software, which were leaked to the public. What exactly can be inferred from the documents about Microsoft's strategies is up to debate. To some, particularly Eric S. Raymond, these documents constitute incontrovertible proof of Microsoft's unfair business practices.

Examples of areas where "embrace, extend and extinguish" have been alleged:

• HTML
• JavaScript
• Kerberos
• Microsoft BASIC
• SMB networking
• Active Directory vs. LDAP
• Indirect control of the IBM compatible PC architecture
• Media Transfer ProtocolThe Media Transfer Protocol is a set of extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol devised by Microsoft, to allow the protocol to be used for devices other than digital cameras (for example MP3 players). It supports syncronization of a device to a host c
• RNDIS
• JavaJava is an object-oriented programming language developed primarily by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems. The language, initially called Oak (named after the oak trees outside Gosling's office), was intended to replace C++, although the fea

The last example was the subject of a widely-publicized lawsuit between Microsoft and Sun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems is a Silicon Valley-based computer, semiconductor and software manufacturer. Sun's products include computer servers and workstations based on the SPARC processor, the SunOS and Solaris operating systems, the NFS network file system, the.

The phrase "embrace, extend and extinguish" should be reserved for the particular strategy outlined above; it would be inaccurate to apply the term to a subject such as Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer abbreviated IE or MSIE is a proprietary but free-of-charge web browser from Microsoft. It is available for most versions of Microsoft Windows, however Microsoft has now stopped releasing updated versions for any platform aside from Windo vs. Netscape NavigatorNetscape Navigator is a web browser that once dominated the market but now has only a relatively small number of users. Rise Netscape Navigator, also known simply as "Netscape", was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation. The comp. Therefore, in the subject JavaJava is an object-oriented programming language developed primarily by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems. The language, initially called Oak (named after the oak trees outside Gosling's office), was intended to replace C++, although the fea vs. .NETNET (note capitalization) initiative is a Microsoft project to create a new software development platform focused on network transparency, platform independence, and rapid application development. The strategy . NET is Microsoft's strategic initiative for, EEE would not strictly apply, either, because .NET is marketed under the Microsoft brand name. However, a J# language is positioned in .NET as a Java-influenced alternative to Java.

Some observers suspect that Microsoft intends to use EEE with the C# programming language, by first getting many users for the ECMA-standard version of the language, which was intentionally designed as a successor to the popular C programming language, then later adding proprietary extensions and removing support for the standards-based version.

"Embrace, extend, and extinguish" is a strategy based on the network effect, the idea that the value of a product to a potential customer increases as the number of customers who already use that product increases. In the first edition of The Road Ahead, Bill Gates explains in detail his plans to use the network effect to Microsoft's advantage.