EU accuses Microsoft of harming browser competition (Reuters)

[KSoD]

So it seems that a topic that this exact thing was brought up has now come to be.

In that topic there i made reference to EU and how they went after Microsoft a while back about WMP being included and how it isnt good for competition. I made a snide reference to Windows Mail not being bundled at this time cause the EU will say something about it preventing competition. Now this news hits and i was close. I was just off on the Application.

The EU is now going after Microsoft for including IE. Which Saxon made a reference to . He thought that IE was the software that the EU originally wanted removed when i had shown that in fact it was WMP.

eyeCpc made reference to a case back in the late 90's from the DOJ and Microsoft about this very issue. As Saxon pointed out the DOJ ruling has no effect on the EU as the EU is for a different country and the DOJ has no jurisdiction.

Now onto the news quotes:

The European Commission accused Microsoft Corp on Friday of stymieing competition by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with Windows systems, firing the latest salvo in an expensive, years-long battle with the software titan.

The executive arm of the European Union reached the preliminary view that the company, which controls roughly three-quarters of the Web browser arena, had prevented rival browsers from competing and had infringed EU rules by abusing its dominant position.

So it seems that the talks were a prequel to what was to come. As it seems the EU is now going after Microsoft for bundling IE.

The Commission "sets out evidence and outlines its preliminary conclusion that Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between Web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice," the EU executive said in a statement.

Source

My personal opinion is this. I dont see how it harms competition. AS Firefox, Opera, Chrome and the rest are a simple download and install. A few clicks and away you go. So is the EU going to go after Microsoft for offering Windows Mail next? What about things like the GUI? Will they go after them cause they dont offer KDE or Gnome?

With OneCare being discontinued and Morro (Info here and here) the free replacement to the Live OneCare solution is due out July 2009. Now if Microsoft gives a link to download this in the Welcome Screen of Windows 7 as a free alternative to viruses and spyware will the EU go after them for that as well?

I mean everybody that uses Windows and knows about these security risks have to download a solution now even with the Windows Firewall already in place. So will the EU throw a fit over Morro being linked with Windows as well?

As i just mentioned the Windows Firewall i wonder if the EU will also throw a fit about that as well. As that can harm competition as well since that is enabled by default.

So here is what i propose.

For those in the rule of the EU we ship them Windows.

No Mail, IE, WMP, Firewall or Link to Morro in Windows 7. Sorry folks.

Maybe this will make the EU happy as it will make the system totally insecure and allow open competition as users wont have access to the internet to be able to get a browser or a firewall to protect them from threats. Let alone a virus solution.

To me it seems that the EU just wants a basic version of Windows with nothing. To allow users to choose what they want. So give it to them.

I am not trying to slight anyone in the EU or the places under its rule. I know many of you dont share the same opinion. But to me this is getting insane. The EU has already fined Microsoft over $1 billion for previous actions so why should Microsoft make the attempt? If it is going to cost that this much money to release their software over there why not just give the EU what it wants. A OS with the choice for users. Then let the Users go back at the EU cause of the risk that it has forced upon its system.

Yes i know this is extreme. Again this is my personal feelings. It might not come to many of those applications to be removed from Windows. Maybe just IE and WMP. But if that is the case let me propose 1 simple question...

If you dont have even IE installed, how do you get to the internet to be able to get a solution to get to the internet?

Think about it. If you fresh install a OS and you dont have a browser to even get online and you have no other PC or method to get to the internet to download the installer how do you get it?

Have Microsoft include them? But then agreements would have to be made with Microsoft/Mozilla/Opera/Google among the other providers to include their software. Mozilla is a open source solution and they are against people having to pay for their software. So if people are paying for Windows with a Firefox installer included wouldnt that technically be paying for Firefox as well?

Sorry about the length of this post. It was gonna just be a copy/paste news blurb but i had to much i wanted to say. Again this is not to start a argument. This is my thoughts on the subject. Lets keep it clean and not attack anyone for their views on this matter. If it gets out of hand the thread will be closed and/or deleted.

 

[Hefemeister]

I agree. My first thought when I first started reading was if I do not have IE how will I get Firefox? Sure I have other computers I could download to but not everyone does. When I installed Win7 i gladly opened up IE and downloaded firefox and have not used IE since. Do I care that it is on my system? No. If there was a problem with Firefox I would use IE.

I think as long as Microsoft makes it easy to uninstall programs that people do not want or would rather use other versions that should be enough.

Is the EU going to start going after computer manufactures for all of the bloatware they preinstall on their systems? What is the difference?

Perhaps the EU would be happier if every one used ubuntu. Wait if we did that we would all have to drop out of school because the internet does not work.

 

[Zaraphrax]

What I find laughable however, is that you never see these guys whinging about how Apple includes Safari by default, and how nearly every "n00bie" Linux distro includes Firefox....The same could be said about these also, it's generating a "monopoly".

But yeah, I agree with hefemeister. It's on there and it's not hurting anything. You need it for somethings anyone, since not everything out there on the Internet works with Firefox, Opera etc....

 

[Nukem]

The EU is going broke, so I guess they have to try and get the money from SOMEWHERE, so why not get it from the BEST capitalist country in the world...

Dang... did I just say that out loud... Sorry, I didn't mean to say that.

 

[Hefemeister]

I am sure that comment was in no way biased.

 

[Kharn]

The EU is going after IE (I have been reading up on this since mak confirmed it was WMP not IE) for anti monopoly reasons, they do not mind if there is a other option on there but MS would like you to use IE an IE alone.

I like FF an opera but I know people who cant function in either an want IE back, when tab's came out I saw lot of people **** themselves an wanted 1 page per window not 5 or 6.
The EU is prity much ****ed at Microsoft for a number of reasons and would like them to change there are many many reasons behind this far to many to cover in one go now here is a soloution for you IE should only be option along with 2 other browsers, most users click a icon when they buy a computer and folow the options till they can get to myspace. If they where given the option of say IE, FF or Opera and a description that would make the EU happy and avoid a lot of mess.

A lot of OEM's would love to have there own branded browser, recently in spain I was in a Marriott all there internet terminals where running a Marriott branded version of firefox it was lacking a few thing's such as a spell checker but the hotel was multi languide and had some funky keyboard, so that might have been a issue.

What is needed is less lock in, some people until they are forced to adapt they wont but given the choice some people will explore new opportunities.

 

[Nukem]

change is a good thing, but like you said, not always wanted... so I guess those people should go back to good old 1955 and call it a year...

let the multi-tasking begin, no matter what browser you use!

 

[Kharn]

Have you ever tried to teach the guy who is using a pre sp1 XP machine about any advances in tech who feels that updates are not necessary anything? It's like herding lolcats it can't be done.

 

[Nukem]

LMAO... yes I know. I am stationed with a guy now...

He gave (yes, GAVE) me his laptop after it died on him from being so corrupt, that it wouldn't boot... he bought another one and I slicked it, UPDATED it, and sold it for 400.00.

 

[Kharn]

haha his loss, was that a HP by the way i seem to recall some one saying they where given a HP in the mods area or in TF2.