Comments

• Linux

  2009-02-23 15:57:56

  Fresh news with regard to MS' monopoly:
  
  http://www.euractiv.com/de/informationsgesellschaft/eu-zwingt-microsoft-angebot-anderer-browser/article-179659
  
  "To this end, Microsoft will be obliged to design Windows in a way that allows users "to choose which competing web browser(s) instead of, or in addition to, Internet Explorer they want to install and which one they want to have as default," Todd explained. A possible solution could be to present Windows users with a so-called "ballot screen" from which they would choose their browser."
  
  :-)

• Jose_X

  2009-02-23 17:34:33

  These games aren't even funny. You can't force Microsoft go give the same kind of tender loving care to other browsers as they give to IE (eg, performance, stability, and defense against malware -- and I am talking about cases where the problem might or might not be fed to the browser).
  
  I would not be surprised if Firefox takes extra precautions for the sake of defense on Windows. Precautions that slow it down and would not be necessary on Linux but which the Linux version still has coded into it (based on design not re-adapted to Linux).
  
  Let's consider a loophole: The other browsers will lack surely enough when you consider these can't handle all the proprietary formats and crap that Microsoft will throw at "a browser". Microsoft can exploit this (leading to IE becoming the default again for everything "browsing").
  
  One attempt at a better solution would be to define what these other browsers can handle and then always use those browsers to handle those functions but use whatever else Windows has to handle the functions those browsers can't handle. In other words, you need to partition by functionality of browsing or else you will end up with the same tie-in issues where IE will be used since it's the only that can handle everything.
  
  I expect Microsoft to give you many opportunities to change your defaults, eg, when you open IE for any task because Firefox couldn't handle something that a "browser" normally is supposed to handle on Windows.
  
  It's also sad that we are still talking about browser tie-ins after all of these years. There are still other antitrust issues since the 90s that have not been given their due.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-02-23 17:47:36

  You could base this on experiences with Google (desktop/Web search). Attempts to enforce choice were a farce because Microsoft disregarded the rules, sometimes thanks to its DOJ cronies like Barnett.
  
  http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-02/ff_killgoogle

• Doug

  2009-02-23 19:20:52

  "Microsoft says it has no plans to revive the Kangaroo online video project .. follows a report that Ashley Highfield, the former chief executive of the Kangaroo project, now at Microsoft, has been talking to broadcasters about possible partnerships"
  
  Will Microsoft be reporting itself to the competition
  
  http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/press_rel/2009/feb/pdf/05-09.pdf
  
  "Incidentally, Sharon Baylay, previously general manager of online services for Microsoft UK, has meanwhile been appointed as director of marketing, communications and audiences at the BBC"
  
  "The ITV Player, as its online video offering is now called, happens to use Microsoft Silverlight technology"

• Jose_X

  2009-02-26 04:14:11

  http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2009/02/24/ec-list-of-potential-principles/