The Free Software Foundation, the keeper of the sacred flame of open-source software untainted by commercial restrictions, evoked a nice image of Microsoft the other day. It compared its nemesis to an unruly child who throws himself to the floor in a tantrum and must be dragged to his feet by his parents.

Microsoft has spent a lot of the past few years foot-dragging and whining about imaginary dangers when confronted by regulators in both the US and Europe that were unhappy at how it wielded its near-monopoly in desktop operating systems. The company's latest show of recalcitrance is over the way the European Commission should implement last year's anti-trust ruling.