Opera, based in Norway, announced Thursday that it had filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by bundling IE with the Windows operating system. Opera also claimed that Microsoft is hindering interoperability by not following accepted open Web standards. Microsoft struck back Friday, indicating that it would not willingly unbundle IE from Windows. "We believe the inclusion of the browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers are already free to choose to use any browsers they wish," a Microsoft representative said. "Internet Explorer has been an integral part of the Windows operating system for over a decade and supports a wide range of Web standards."
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Member since:2006-02-19
Member since:2005-07-06
Did you even make an effort to read the posts; someone else has already pointed out here, even after downloading and setting up the new browser as default, the likes of Windows Live Messenger still loads Internet Explorer by default.
That is the issue people are getting at - and strange enough, it never happens on Mac OS X; install Firefox, and even through the MSN Messenger on Mac, it loads up with the correct default browser - same goes for Linux.
You change the default browser on any of the other major operating systems, they respect the choice, the default selection of the end user - under Windows, no way; Microsoft knows better than you, ignores your settings and still loads up Internet Explorer.
Oh, and don't blame the software vendor; Microsoft wrote both the operating system, the browser and messenger; it either says one of two things, they're grossly incompetent or simply that they are going to fight tooth and nail at every opportunity when it comes to consumer choices.
Oh, and a side issue; the original law suit which started off the investigation by the DOJ years ago was over the fact that Microsoft disallowed OEM's from loading competing browsers on the computer and replacing the IE logo on the desktop with the installed browser. That is the issue. They restricted choice at the supply end.
Edited 2007-12-18 06:56
Member since:2007-09-06
"Monopoly" is a special case. If you don't have a monopoly share of the market then you are more free in how you can compete. Once you gain the monopoly share, laws are suposed to restrict you to explicitly fair competition.
Apple is every bit as restrictive as Microsoft. If they where 90% of the measurable consumer market then antitrust law would be applicable.
Member since:2006-08-02
Member since:
2006-01-10
With Mac OS X you have to fire up Safari to get Camino or any other browser. Sure you could delete the Safari binary afterwards, but you can delete iexplore.exe, too. You can't delete WebKit on OS X because many applications use it. You can't delete mshtml.dll for the same reason. So, really, what's the difference? Must Apple also comply, and provide Firefox, Camino, Opera, and whatever other browser exists as well, on their OS X DVDs?