Microsoft Investigated Again in Europe

[malware]

The European Commission, fresh from a major court victory over Microsoft, launched new antitrust investigations into the software giant on Monday, on suspicion it abused its market dominance. Investigators will see whether Microsoft broke competition rules to help its Web browser and its Office and Outlook products, after complaints from Norwegian Web browser company Opera and a coalition of technology firms including IBM, Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Oracle Corp. The European Commission opened two formal probes. The first one - triggered by a complaint from Norway's Opera Software ASA - will look at whether Microsoft illegally gives away its Internet Explorer browser for free with Windows. Opera had called on the EU to strip Internet Explorer out of Windows or carry alternative browsers. The second investigation will examine whether Microsoft withheld information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its software - including Office word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools, some server products and Microsoft's push into the Internet under the name of the .NET framework. Microsoft said it would cooperate fully: "We are committed to ensuring that Microsoft is in full compliance with European law and court obligations," it said in a statement.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Wile E]

Opera is a bunch of whiners. I hope MS wins this case.

 

[Triprift]

Why should ms have to strip ie out of windows you can dl opera or firefox and use them ms aint forcing anyone to use ie.

 

[btarunr]

I hate Opera. MS has a right to bundle any browser it wants with its OS just as Apple bundles Safari and the thousands of Linux distributors choose between Firefox, Konqeror and Opera. Even if Opera wins this case nobody's going to use the crap of a browser that Opera is anyway. It's not a crime selling people what you want to. My computer doesn't blow up when I use IE, just that it sucks when I use Opera.

 

[xylomn]

this is probablyb opera trying to get back to a position where they can charge for it again, remember if theres no bundled browser then we cant go to their page to download it so we'd have to go and get it on physical media

 

[pt]

i preffer opera to ie or firefox, but if i have to pay to have opera, ff all the way

 

[xfire]

Opera for me but against the stip IE part but it would be nice if we get a choice of installing which browser during installation of windows.

 

[DarkMatter]

^^ Amen to that. They should bundle all the browsers and let the customer decide upon installation.

 

[DarkMatter]

The European Commission, fresh from a major court victory over Microsoft, launched new antitrust investigations into the software giant on Monday, on suspicion it abused its market dominance. Investigators will see whether Microsoft broke competition rules to help its Web browser and its Office and Outlook products, after complaints from Norwegian Web browser company Opera and a coalition of technology firms including IBM, Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Oracle Corp. The European Commission opened two formal probes. The first one — triggered by a complaint from Norway's Opera Software ASA — will look at whether Microsoft illegally gives away its Internet Explorer browser for free with Windows. Opera had called on the EU to strip Internet Explorer out of Windows or carry alternative browsers. The second investigation will examine whether Microsoft withheld information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its software — including Office word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools, some server products and Microsoft's push into the Internet under the name of the .NET framework. Microsoft said it would cooperate fully: "We are committed to ensuring that Microsoft is in full compliance with European law and court obligations," it said in a statement.

Source: eitb24, Yahoo! News

Hehe it's been both strange and rewarding for me to see EITB as the source.

 

[btarunr]

^^ Amen to that. They should bundle all the browsers and let the customer decide upon installation.

BS. Why would MS bundle browsers made by other software companies? If it bundles FF and Opera, it should bundle the other punny browsers out there as well. Piece of crap. MS has the right to include what it wants in its products. Yeah in that case every replacable product that comes with Windows shhould be bundled, like Winamp, Real Player, Musicmatch, xyz...for Windows Media Player....why not this?

In that case why doesn't Opera question Apple or Redhat on which browsers they prefer to bundle? Apple bundles Safari and Redhat bundles Firefox. Double standards at play.

 

[mdm-adph]

The second investigation will examine whether Microsoft withheld information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its software — including Office word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools, some server products and Microsoft's push into the Internet under the name of the .NET framework.

Source: eitb24, Yahoo! News

Make fun of Opera's case all you want (it is kinda toothless), but that second charge holds a lot of merit. I work with one of Microsoft's main competitors in a certain market where the only two companies left are either us or Microsoft, and I can tell you, it's a royal pain in the ass -- it's like competing against an opponent in a football game where every match is played on their turf. The amount of times that something has to be patched because things just mysteriously "stop working" whenever Microsoft releases a patch or security update is uncanny -- oh, but Microsoft's software never has any problems, of course.

Microsoft said it would cooperate fully: "We are committed to ensuring that Microsoft is in full compliance with European law and court obligations," it said in a statement.

Translation: "We'll wait until whatever ruling is passed so that we can release a half-assed fix and then pretty much continue doing whatever we want until people wise up and start looking at Linux seriously, which we hope will never happen, because we've spent a lot of time and money making Linux look 'scary' or 'dangerous' or 'used by nerds.'"

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

thing is the internet browser should not be integrated into the OS. If i set FF as my default browser if i click my inbox on messenger it should use FF, not IE even though i "disabled" it.

 

[WhiteLotus]

if they strip IE out of computers - how are you meant to get online to download the free version of opera?!?!?

 

[btarunr]

thing is the internet browser should not be integrated into the OS. If i set FF as my default browser if i click my inbox on messenger it should use FF, not IE even though i "disabled" it.

Okay, if not integrated into the OS, at least the OS should bundle one. Then again global variables are the key. Your messenger invoking MSIE even when it's disabled is a flaw with the messenger's code, not the OS.

 

[mdm-adph]

if they strip IE out of computers - how are you meant to get online to download the free version of opera?!?!?

Web browsers aren't the only thing that can access files on the Internet, you know.

 

[mdm-adph]

Okay, if not integrated into the OS, at least the OS should bundle one. Then again global variables are the key. Your messenger invoking MSIE even when it's disabled is a flaw with the messenger's code, not the OS.

...you really think that was a flaw? I can almost guarantee you that that behaviour is intentional.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Okay, if not integrated into the OS, at least the OS should bundle one. Then again global variables are the key. Your messenger invoking MSIE even when it's disabled is a flaw with the messenger's code, not the OS.

agreed, and allow me to uninstall it altogether, along with teh virtual machine.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

...you really think that was a flaw? I can almost guarantee you that that behaviour is intentional.

yep, pushing IE in yo face ...

 

[btarunr]

...you really think that was a flaw? I can almost guarantee you that that behaviour is intentional.

intentional or not, it's a flaw and that in the messenger's code. Again IRA didn't mention which messenger, if it was Windows Messenger or Y!. Either ways it's something to do with the messenger's code. Obviously its Windows Messenger and it integrates with Microsoft products just as Movie maker uses the DShow codecs that WMP uses and the WMP uses IEframe to diaplay windowsmedia website and web-content, it doesn't use the Netscape Gecko if Firefox is set to default, does it?

Even then what's the big deal in that? As if your computer blows up if it uses IE.

 

[Triprift]

Ms havnt done nething wrong if u dont like ie dont use it noones got a gun at your head.

 

[btarunr]

IE to Windows is what Safari is to the Mac OS X. Why doesn't anyone question Apple for using Safari (which genuinely is the best browser for the Mac)?

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Ms havnt done nething wrong if u dont like ie dont use it noones got a gun at your head.

i install msn messenger ... i click my inbox ... i have FF as my default browser .... it opens IE ... WTF??!?!

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

IE to Windows is what Safari is to the Mac OS X. Why doesn't anyone question Apple for using Safari (which genuinely is the best browser for the Mac)?

who cares about mac users ...

 

[btarunr]

i install msn messenger ... i click my inbox ... i have FF as my default browser .... it opens IE ... WTF??!?!

because both MSN Messenger and IE are Microsoft products. They're integrated in the same way MS Office integrates with IE, WMP integrates with IE (uses the ieframe.dll) and hundreds of other products.

If you have a problem with MSN Messenger (the software), nobody is stopping you from using alternatives such as Trillian, Pidgin or IM2.

Miscosoft products explicitly depend on IE just as Apple products depend on Safari. Microsoft isn't committing a crime with this, is it?

who cares about mac users ...

Yeah right....who cares about Opera....

 

[mdm-adph]

IE to Windows is what Safari is to the Mac OS X. Why doesn't anyone question Apple for using Safari (which genuinely is the best browser for the Mac)?

Last time I checked, Safari didn't depend upon half as many proprietary technologies as IE does.

And maybe it's just personal experiences, but every single mac user I know (including myself) uses Firefox for 99% of browsing -- Safari's rendering engine can be quite funny when it wants to be.

intentional or not, it's a flaw and that in the messenger's code. Again IRA didn't mention which messenger, if it was Windows Messenger or Y!. Either ways it's something to do with the messenger's code. Obviously its Windows Messenger and it integrates with Microsoft products just as Movie maker uses the DShow codecs that WMP uses and the WMP uses IEframe to diaplay windowsmedia website and web-content, it doesn't use the Netscape Gecko if Firefox is set to default, does it?

Even then what's the big deal in that? As if your computer blows up if it uses IE.

I still fail to see what's so necessary about IE that even Windows Messenger would need to use it to show web content whenever someone clicks on a link.

And the "big deal?" The "big deal" is that it's anti-competitive. And that's a pretty big deal, if you ask me.