Microsoft Gets Beaten Up…Again
Redmond has taken its share of legal lumps over the last few years, especially in terms of the $2.5 billion it paid to settle EU (European Union) antitrust complaints. These were related to IE and its tight integration into the Windows OS, of course (if you didn’t know that already, where have you been?). Now it looks like another chapter in this legal battle is about to close, as it prepares to settle another aspect of the same case.
The basic foundation of the case is this: “competing software makers had complained PC users didn’t have a clear way to choose a browser that challenges Internet Explorer, and the European Commission concluded in January that Microsoft was violating antitrust laws.” This was understandable, given that Windows shipped with IE heavily integrated and installed by default when PC makers (or users) set up Windows on a new PC. Other browser companies also cried foul, especially as it seemed Redmond was leaning on PC vendors to install only IE when preparing new systems for shipment.
Under the new agreement, Windows will “show EU users a prominent screen from which they could choose from a list of several browsers” and they’ll be able to change this choice at any time. And if they’re really clueless, they’ll be able to click a button that will (yes, really) provide them with more information about what a browser is.
However, probably the coolest aspect of this settlement is that Microsoft “also committed to share more information with software developers for the next 10 years to help them make products compatible with Windows and key pieces of software used in businesses: Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint. Microsoft agreed to make sure its technology is built using industry standards, after years of complaints from rivals about its proprietary choices for Web browsers and document formats.”
That’s just amazing. IE8 has already brought Microsoft’s browser into closer compliance with W3C standards after years of battling over protocol implementations, but I never expected the boys in Redmond to agree to this. Does it mean the next version of Office won’t introduce a new document format no one else can read? The mind boggles.