Following the EU investigation into Internet Explorer's inclusion in Windows, Microsoft made it possible to "turn off" Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7, by removing the executable and every mention of the browser from the system. According to Opera and Google, this is nice, but not enough.
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Member since:2006-07-04
Oh please.
When the violations you're talking about occurred, Chrome didn't even exist. Now you claim Chrome was damaged? As for Opera, they need to ask themselves why Firefox as 25% share while they have <1%. Anyone with a working brain knows that Opera's problems aren't Microsoft's fault.
As for "the law", Microsoft's cases regarding this issue have been tried and remedies already agreed upon both parties in a settlement. Coming in YEARS later to pile on isn't due process, regardless of how much you despise Microsoft.
Member since:2006-01-11
I'm not claiming anything except that Microsoft making Internet Explorer removable now doesn't exonerate their past criminal behaviour.
I don't see how this half-baked browser chooser idea is supposed to help consumers either, and I totally agree that Google and Opera are pursuing their own agendas.
However, I also don't see how Microsoft making Internet Explorer removable now somehow undoes a decade of monopoly abuse.
Microsoft deserve to be punished for deliberately and egregiously breaking the law for many years just the same as any other organization or individual would be.
Come to think of it... For an organization that has squashed competition for many years to be forced to give it's competitors a leg up does smack of poetic justice though.
Edited 2009-03-13 08:23 UTC
Member since:
2006-01-11
That's not the way it works when you break the law; It's like a burglar promising not to break into any more houses... Even if he keeps his promise, he hasn't given back what he stole, and he should still be punished for what he's done in the past.
The same principle applies to Microsoft, making the browser removable after years of tying doesn't undo the damage done by their use of a monopoly in one market to enter another, and doesn't mean that they won't do the same thing again the next time a new market opens up.
Understand?