Barbarian at the Gates.(Europeans brace for entrance of Microsoft into market)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the sort of chief executive Europe loves to hate. Last year a video clip of a sweaty, screaming Ballmer delivering a motivational speech, with background music from Gloria Estefan, became an instant cult classic, e-mailed back and forth among horrified Europeans. "Whenever my children act this way, I tell them they are overtired and send them to bed," wrote one Financial Times columnist, who called the video "shocking."

At the height of the tech boom, Microsoft inspired an equal mix of loathing, awe and imitation in Europe. Mostly what's left is the loathing.

The U.S. court ruling against what critics claim is a predatory monopoly has shattered the image of Microsoft as a role model for young European entrepreneurs. Now that the American government has abandoned efforts to break up the world's largest software company, the center of anti-Microsoft activity has shifted to Europe. Why? Microsoft embodies a giant American threat to some of Europe's most promising technology-- and its dearest values. And now that the bubble era is over, Europe is no longer too dazzled by American business to defend itself.

There are four active fronts in this battle. European investigators are examining charges that Microsoft is angling to create a monopoly in the server market, which could lead to a $2 billion fine later this year. They are also eying the Redmond giant as a threat to privacy. Microsoft has launched an online ID program called Passport, which could give the company a powerful tool to collect personal info on all its customers. That spooks computer users everywhere. But Europe has strict privacy laws that could pose a major roadblock. Meanwhile Linux, the free Finnish alternative to Windows, is broadening its cult following to become the server of choice for many European companies. In recent weeks the governments of Norway and Germany have chosen Linux servers to reduce their reliance on Microsoft. Perhaps most important, Nokia of Finland is leading an industry effort to prevent Bill Gates from doing to the mobile phone what he did to the PC--making it just an increasingly cheap shell for expensive Microsoft software.

Until recently, European critics were just one element in a global subculture of Microsoft haters. Techies like to dump on Windows for everything from reliability and security (think Love Bug) to arrogance and cost. Magnus Borg, founder of the Linux Users Group in Stockholm, complains about irritating American marketing. "It's that peppy thing that we have a problem with." There is also a feeling of loyalty, especially in Scandinavia, to Linux founder Linus Torvalds, a Finn. Otherwise the attitude is more anti-monopoly than anti-American. "Microsoft is a nation unto itself," says Volker Hett, a Linux specialist in Bremen who ends his correspondence with: "This e-mail is written 100 percent Microsoft free."

Still, transatlantic culture clashes animate the growing resistance to Microsoft, particularly on privacy matters. European law and custom hold that all information is private unless the public can demonstrate a need to know. U.S. law holds the opposite: all data is public unless there's a good reason to keep it secret. Microsoft walked right into this contradiction when it introduced Passport two years ago, as part of its .NET strategy to become a major player in Web services. Passport's extensive ability to process personal information set off alarm bells in the European Union, which has much tighter rules than the States about what Web sites can do with private data. An EU task force of national data-privacy agencies held two meetings this year dedicated entirely to Microsoft. It has released a list of ways Microsoft could run into legal trouble if Passport is not modified or better explained, including how it deals with customer consent and control over personal information. Microsoft believes that it is in compliance with EU law, but stresses that they are in an "ongoing dialogue."