Star EU Charges Microsoft with Unlawful Competition
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 17th Jan 2009 15:29 UTC
Internet Explorer After successfully battling Microsoft over the company's bundling of Windows Media Player, the European Union is now ready for more. The European Commission has charged Microsoft with violating competition laws because of the Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.
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Comment by Anonymous Penguin
by Anonymous Penguin on Sat 17th Jan 2009 19:42 UTC
Anonymous Penguin
Member since:
2005-07-06

I am a European who prefers Linux and OS X to Windows.
Having said that, I disagree with the European Commission this time. It seems to me pretty normal that an operating system, any operating system should come bundled with a browser. This is not keeping people from using Firefox instead of IE, Konqueror, Safari...

Of course I'd like to see "alternative" operating systems having a larger share of the market.
But this isn't the right approach.
OS X isn't as popular as it could be because Europeans perceive Apple hardware as limited in choice and expensive.
As to Linux, so much has been said with regard to what could be done in order to make it more popular.
But certainly the EU institutions could do a lot in order to promote Linux, and that would be a better approach, IMO.

Edited 2009-01-17 19:45 UTC

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dmantione Member since:
2005-07-06

I am a European who prefers Linux and OS X to Windows.
Having said that, I disagree with the European Commission this time. It seems to me pretty normal that an operating system, any operating system should come bundled with a browser. This is not keeping people from using Firefox instead of IE, Konqueror, Safari...


It is *not* forbidden to bundle a browser. I think the DG Competition fully agrees with anyone else that having software pre-installed has advantages.

What the DG Competition has problems with, is that Microsoft had a dominant position in the OS market and used that position to disrupt another market. Opera complaint was that Microsoft is still today disrupting the browser market and hurting its possibilities to compete.

Bundling a browser without disrupting the browser market is possible.

Note a large portion of the Opera complaint is not so much that is has to compete against a bundled browser, but that it is hurt selling a mobile browser, because of all the proprietary Microsoft extensions in use on the web. Microsoft can fix that without unbundling IE.

Microsoft at this time has received a Statement of Objections. This means that it has officially notified it is disrupting the browser market and needs to act. At this time Microsoft is free to choose how it will fix disrupting the market.

It can unbundle IE, but it can also bundle competing browsers, for example.

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Anonymous Penguin Member since:
2005-07-06

Thanks. I find your post informative, but I can't mod you up, because I have already posted.

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WorknMan Member since:
2005-11-13

What the DG Competition has problems with, is that Microsoft had a dominant position in the OS market and used that position to disrupt another market. Opera complaint was that Microsoft is still today disrupting the browser market and hurting its possibilities to compete.


Well, maybe Opera should be more concerned about fixing (or at least acknowedging) bugs that users report to them...

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=263311

instead of closing such discussion threads, and bitching and whining to the EU about what Microsoft is/is not doing.

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