Those Europeans are getting this technology thing right.

In what could only be a coordinated effort (or not), two news stories emerged today highlighting Europe's shrewd use of technology.

First there was this story on how a European court set September 17th as the date when it will rule whether Microsoft broke European Union antitrust regulations. This is a hold over from the 2004 ruling that found Microsoft had broken competition rules by using it's OS monopoly to elbow out rival's software (by not allowing manufacturer's ship machines with competing software and making it difficult for other to write software that would work on Windows). Basically the court is ruling on whether MS complied with the 2004 ruling.

At more or less the same time, Ars Technica reported that Firefox usage in Europe is on pace to unseat Internet Explorer as the most used web browser. Here are some of the stats they reported:

Surfers using Firefox during the first week in July

47.9 percent in Slovenian

45.4 percent in Finland

40.4 percent in Slovakia

39.6 percent in Poland

38.0 percent in Germany

30.7 percent in Austria

Eric Bangeman postulated the reason for the popularity of Firefox:

There could be any combination of factors driving the growth: security vulnerabilities, anti-Microsoft sentiment, strong local support networks for Firefox, or even just a widespread feeling that Firefox 2.0 is a superior browser to the competition.

By keeping big companies in check and embracing open-source, standard-compliant software, those Europeans are ensuring that they define the foundation of their technology. Since nothing stops progress, it's best to be able to direct it as much as possible.