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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
(Unverified)Jun 11th 2009 7:51PM
This annoys the hell out of me. Here's a comparison: if Starbucks has a signature ingredient that they put in their coffee, using the EU's logic, Starbucks should have to use a competitor's special ingredient. It's MS's freaking OS. Let them put their crappy IE on it if they want. People who actually care about their browser will get Firefox or whatever they want.
And I might sound stupid, but how do you get an Internet browser if you don't have one on your computer in the first place?
(Unverified)Jun 11th 2009 9:27PM
That's the end-user's problem, not the EU's.
KarlWJun 11th 2009 10:20PM
No, that's completely the wrong interpretation of this. It's the kind of quick-fire view that ignores the point of view of Microsoft's competitors and comes to the wrong decision.
The reason Microsoft are always in trouble with the EU is because they have a monopoly on desktop OSes. That's fine, that's how the OS market is. However, technology development in another market (the browser market) would grind to a halt if Microsoft has no competition in that market (as it did after IE6). The goal of these rulings is to stop the desktop OS market warping the browser market.
The EU hasn't been after an IE-free version of Windows per se, it's been after less proprietary integration between Windows and IE. That means either less integration, or opening the integration to 3rd parties, and making IE easier to replace (otherwise the market is warped in favour of IE).
If you know anything about the history of the internet and IE, you'd know how important this is. Microsoft broke standards to try and make the internet a Windows-only tool, and the lack of competition in the browser space completely killed innovation for half a decade before Firefox spectacularly managed to gain a foot-hold. Now the market is competitive again, and it's in part thanks to rulings like these that help competition.