'Preposterous' EU charges forced 'puckish' Microsoft move, says antitrust expert
Microsoft's plan to dump Internet Explorer (IE) from Windows 7 for the European market is a move to discredit antitrust regulators by tying its proposal to a failed enforcement effort from 2005, a noted antitrust expert said today.
"It's sort of a puckish thing to do, when you think about it," said William Page, co-author of The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare (University of Chicago Press, 2009). "Their solution is a little bit like Windows XP [and Vista] 'N,' which dramatizes that the EU essentially wants the same thing this time. But everyone knows that 'N' was a total flop."
Windows XP N, and later, Windows Vista N, were special editions that omitted Windows Media Player, which Microsoft was forced to create for Europeans after losing an earlier antitrust case. By all accounts, Windows XP and Vista N have been major busts, with few copies sold and no computer makers installing them on new PCs.
Microsoft's obvious attempt to tie its solution to the failed "N" editions of 2005 -- it went so far as to say it will slap the letter "E" on the Windows 7 editions that omit IE -- is probably one reason why the EU has turned a cold shoulder to the company's plan, said Page.
"The Commission had suggested to Microsoft that consumers be provided with a choice of Web browsers," EU regulators said today in a statement. "Instead Microsoft has apparently decided to supply retail consumers with a version of Windows without a Web browser at all. Rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less."
The European Commission, the EU's antitrust agency, made it clear that Microsoft's proposal will probably not be enough. "In terms of potential remedies, if the Commission were to find that Microsoft had committed an abuse, the Commission has suggested that consumers should be offered a choice of browser, not that Windows should be supplied without a browser at all."
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Can't make all happy
Huge, gigantic BS. EU telling MS how to produce products (a dialog this way or that way) and the browser makers whinning that MS removes IE from Windows 7. The whole thing is an enourmos BS. LEave MS alone already. Bunch of vultures.RE: can't make all happy ...
I agree with the commentor. MS seemes to be damned if they leave the browser in and damned if they take it out. It's a good sign that the EU don't know it's head from a hole in the ground.Leave MS alone, it's their software, if they want to extract IE from their OS, it's their business, and probably good for most users. They can the offer it as an add on as are a lot of other things, which would give great choice.
I personally have always thought that MS should just have a lean and mean OS by it self and offer everything else as addons, like IE,WMP,Moviemaker,Speach program and the tools package to include all services. I would love to have this type of OS and then be able to install only addon extras that I personally want on my machine.
I think if MS had went this route, nobody could have had a complaint and MS would still have been a leader because so many would install the MS addons vs other. MS in keeping all of these other programs independent of the OS ceould have made each of them more robust and secure.
Please Remove IE.
As someone who uses Microsoft apps almost exclusively in my career, I think it is great that they are pulling IE out of the operating system. I don’t use IE (I prefer Firefox) and I am tired of having to apply all of the patches for IE. If its not on the system then hopefully that will mean fewer patches.As for the other browser companies not wanting them to pull it but instead giving the user the option of the other browsers, I disagree completely, Microsoft should not be required to provide the other browsers as part of their installs or on the DVDs or a list on browser first start. Other Os'es like Apple don’t have to do it, do they...