Security prompts Microsoft to launch IE version early
Monday, February 21, 2005
Todd Bishop
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Microsoft will release the next version of the Internet Explorer Web browser, with improved security, in preliminary form this summer. Microsoft is moving up the release amid rising security concerns and new competition from the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser.
Microsoft will offer the finished version of its recently acquired anti-spyware technology free to individual Windows users. That could pose a new challenge to the business models of independent companies that specialize in anti-spyware software for the Microsoft operating system.
Microsoft chief Bill Gates also said the company will release its planned anti-virus product for consumers by the end of this year. Microsoft executives said the anti-virus software will be part of a broader offering for consumers, but they gave no further details.
The series of moves, announced by Gates at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, highlighted MicrosoftÂ’s potential effect on McAfee, Symantec and other companies that sell packages of anti-virus, anti-spyware and other security software for Windows and other computer systems.
The prospect of competition from Microsoft drew a pointed response at the conference from the leader of one of those companies. John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec Inc., raised the Microsoft issue during a speech there.
Symantec and other securitysoftware specialists "will always be a better alternative," Thompson said. Thompson was asked if he would object on antitrust grounds to MicrosoftÂ’s decision to offer its anti-spyware program free to Windows users. The companyÂ’s inclusion of Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for free along with Windows has been at the heart of the United States and European antitrust cases against the company. "To the extent that they violate the position of prominence that they have, be assured that weÂ’ll be watching," he said.
