More browser, monopoly woes for Microsoft
Microsoft escaped with a rap on the knuckles from their antitrust woes with the United States Justice Department. They are not faring nearly so well with European authorities.
Microsoft recently lost a long and hard-fought battle with European antitrust authorities over their mandatory inclusion of Windows Media Play with the Windows operating system. In this media player “bundling” dispute, the European Union fined Microsoft heavily and forced it to provide a version of Windows without the media played pre-installed.
The new dispute is a rehash of an old battle, regarding the mandatory inclusion of Internet Explorer as the default Windows browser. This time, Microsoft would appear to be offering a simple the check-box solution as a way to head off further antitrust litigation in Europe. This possible solution came to light during the Beta release of Windows 7.
Bloggers looking at the configuration settings available in the new OS found one that they had never seen before. It was a check-box which allows the user to toggle on or off Internet Explorer as the user’s browser of choice, according to an AP story. Microsoft would not comment on the existence of the new configuration setting for their new operating system.
However, given the recent decision by the European Union in the media player dispute, and an even more recent lawsuit by Opera Software ASA, a Norwegian browser competitor, it would appear that this is the reason for the checkbox. Opera is saying that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows gives Microsoft the same unfair advantage as bundling Windows Media Player. This single check box could possible allow Microsoft to avoid further problems with the EU. They could argue that it would be easy for the user to turn off Internet Explorer, or they could simply ship the European build of Windows 7 with this IE setting turned off.
Microsoft simply can’t afford many user-acceptance or regulatory problems with with Windows 7. After the fiasco represented by Vista, with so many major companies and personal users deciding not to upgrade from Windows XP if they could avoid it, Microsoft needs the sales that a new hit operating system would provide. They are currently in no position to get into a shouting match over a browser that is proving unpopular if it will further hurt an operating system that is faring little better.
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