EU Slams Microsoft Over Lack of Browser Choice

[Pebkio]

I guess they DID sign an agreement that they aren't honoring for whatever reason. the European Union is well within it's rights to charge the fine.

But really, EU, really? Did Internet Explorer prevent England from using your currency? Is Internet Explorer responsible for Switzerland not joining your Country Club? Are you going to start blaming WW2 on IE now?

"Hello. My name is European Union... you killed my father... prepare to die!"

>.>

Psst... PSSST.... hey EU... I can't help but notice that the Browser Selection Screen... OPENS IN INTERNET EXPLORER! You're tainted by the IE disease from the get-go.

---

You know what this looks like to me?Given that the European Union has to date fined Microsoft ?1.64 billion (US$2.1 billion) for various offenses, a fine for this particular breach wouldn't mark a huge deviation from the norm.It looks like the EU is searching for every tiny little thing to justify stealing money from Microsoft.

 

[Yal]

Well, I'm sure there will an equal amount of shite being thrown at Apple for only including Safari on iOS.

*waits*

I'd love too, I'm really not very fond of Safari and hate how much I use it now, but it's really hard to argue that the second most popular mobile OS is actually a monopoly.

 

[Bobic]

So great, now, rather than having to download Google Chrome when I buy a new computer I'll have to uninstall the 3-4 other browsers that will be bundled with it for no reason. Or, more likely, leave them installed taking up some small amount of space I don't care about. Still, dick move EU, dick move.

And isn't there something else you should be focusing on, like all that debt. . .

The upper limit is 10% of Microsoft's annual revenue, which is kind of an eyewatering sum of money. Given that the European Union has to date fined Microsoft €1.64 billion (US$2.1 billion) for various offenses, a fine for this particular breach wouldn't mark a huge deviation from the norm.

Ohhhh, now I understand

 

[FEichinger]

Guys, you need to stop thinking of this like "Why aren't they shitting on Apple for doing the same on their phones?" or "What's so bad about having to use IE for a bit to get a better browser?"

It's a whole different thing on closed systems. A system that is openly intended to be closed (like iOS), doesn't need to offer a variety like this. A semi-open system like Windows, however, should not have the only gateway to said open-ness monopolized by the company behind the OS. At least some variety on the browsers (said gateway) should be included.

Also, what the heck is wrong with all the Americans talking smack about the oh-so-bad debt crisis "destablizing other currencies"? Debt crisis is bad, sure ... But need I remind you who keeps smearing their dicks all over nearly any other country's governments?

 

[Bob_F_It]

I can only think that after Microsoft's efforts, the EUC wants to squeeze every penny possible out of this issue so that they can shore up the mess of an economy that they have right now.

 

[sethisjimmy]

This is like when WordPerfect sued Microsoft for starting to package Microsoft Word with Windows, which they claimed was deliberately anti-competitive, which it was, but still, it's their own product, if they choose to promote their product above a competitor it's their choice.

It's as if these people don't know they can still use other browsers even though IE is the only one packaged in. It's like they don't understand that new software can be installed on a computer that doesn't come pre-packaged.

 

[Li Mu]

Well, I'm sure there will an equal amount of shite being thrown at Apple for only including Safari on iOS.

*waits*

Nobody sues Apple. Apple could murder children to power it's new Ipad and people would claim that it is a stroke of genius.

 

[Esotera]

To everyone asking why this is an issue, several browsers back in the 90's, including one called Netscape, required you to buy a license before using them. Microsoft decided to undercut the competition by producing their own browser for free and bundling it with their OS product - the massive market share they had on the desktop market meant that this totally undercut the competition's business model, causing them to go out of business and giving Microsoft an effective monopoly.

Anyway, the EU courts didn't take too kindly to that and are making sure it doesn't happen again. The only thing the EU needs to do is hurry up their anti-trust investigations for Google, intensify it for facebook, and maybe adopt a sane model on copyright, and they will be perfect.

 

[Oirish_Martin]

I'd love too, I'm really not very fond of Safari and hate how much I use it now, but it's really hard to argue that the second most popular mobile OS is actually a monopoly.

Nobody sues Apple. Apple could murder children to power it's new Ipad and people would claim that it is a stroke of genius.

I'm also finding myself reminded of this.

 

[Oirish_Martin]

And maybe Microsoft Sam reader AS WELL AS a Brian Blessed reader.

I'm....just saying I'm totally OK with the EU forcing them to do this.

 

[Epona]

This never made any sense to me and continues to make no sense to me. Why do they need to offer anything? Are they requiring, oh I don't know, Apple to provide a choice of browser on their iPhone?

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

I'd say this was an outdated concept except that it never, ever made any sense to me. They might as well complain that there's no choice of Notepad or Solitaire providers, because I'm stuck with what MSFT gives me when I install it, no matter that I can install all the notepad clones or games I want after the fact.

I know, it makes no sense. Should Windows also come with Linux? Should a 360 come with a Wii in the box?

It makes no sense at all why one company would be strong-armed into including their competitors product.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Is installing Chrome or Firefox on a tablet a big deal? It takes literally 5-10 seconds to install Chrome on a PC.

google.com/chrome

Install Chrome

3 seconds later it's done.

 

[Kargathia]

This never made any sense to me and continues to make no sense to me. Why do they need to offer anything? Are they requiring, oh I don't know, Apple to provide a choice of browser on their iPhone?

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

I'd say this was an outdated concept except that it never, ever made any sense to me. They might as well complain that there's no choice of Notepad or Solitaire providers, because I'm stuck with what MSFT gives me when I install it, no matter that I can install all the notepad clones or games I want after the fact.

The charges were that Microsoft was abusing its heavy market dominance on the PC market to push its own browser by pre-installing it. There are viable alternatives for browsers, so Microsoft was brought to heel in order to improve competition between the browser providers.

Installing another browser is easy, but the mere fact of IE already being installed gives it a fair headstart - especially as the ruling was made in an era where IE still was dominating the market after muscling out Netscape Navigator, and only Firefox was even reaching single-digits percentages of market share.

And as to the comparison with solitaire: as soon as there are multiple large companies making a lot of money of solitaire-equivalents, you'll probably see some anti-trust action on that. The driving force behind the browser action was not that they have a virtual monopoly, but that several competitors were being muscled out - competitors with enough clout to be heard by the EU.

 

[mew4ever23]

Does the EU really have nothing better to do? Nah, who cares about Eurozone [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-markets-global-idUSBRE88901C20121024], we gotta nail Microsoft to the wall for making it's browser default on windows!

Seriously though, who cares if IE comes with windows by default, you can take a few moments to go grab your browser of choice. And they say Americans are lazy.

 

[Mullahgrrl]

Now, I have never been a fan of living in the E.U. but sometimes they are hard to dislike. Or, to put it in youtube clips, .

 

[Jutaris]

Guys, you need to stop thinking of this like "Why aren't they shitting on Apple for doing the same on their phones?" or "What's so bad about having to use IE for a bit to get a better browser?"

It's a whole different thing on closed systems. A system that is openly intended to be closed (like iOS), doesn't need to offer a variety like this. A semi-open system like Windows, however, should not have the only gateway to said open-ness monopolized by the company behind the OS. At least some variety on the browsers (said gateway) should be included.

But what about MacOS? It comes packed with Safari. I don't know that it comes packed with any other browser, and I'd be willing to bet there's no browser select screen there...

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

Many here don't seem to realise this is all about how enormously huge Microsoft and their windows OS is. I don't know how it is in the US, but in the EU the MAC is just a niched little fraction of the OS market, many if not most average users don't even know apple makes anything but phones and tablets.

Basically, to most people windows is THE operating system. They barely know others exist. That is why they are being forced to include a choice of browsers. Windows is so popular and makes so much money that microsoft can effectively give away other smaller products for free with windows, effectively nipping any competition in the bud, creating a monopoly.

Apple doesn't have to do the same with Mac OS because it is so much smaller. Phones and gaming consoles are much more varied markets with many more players, so there would be no reason to make an xbox 360 come with a Wii or force Samsung to make you chose between Android OS and iOS, for example.

 

[blackrave]

Some formality BS
So what they demand from MS
To develop another internet browser to offer alongside IE?
Or maybe provide all possible browsers with any version of Windows?

 

[lolobar]

This is the latest of a very old story. Who cares for a history lesson?!
No-one!? Oh come on guys! Please read it!!!

1993
Novell company at that time had acquired the Unix rights and wanted to battle Microsoft. Microsoft at that time had already released Windows 3.1 (remember no significant internet at that time)
Novell's problem at that time was Windows Media Player. They said it ruined their day.

1998
Sun Microsystems also had a problem with Microsoft. Microsoft at that time had released Windows NT and kept some interfaces hidden. Sun Microsystems saw the competition and it ruined their day also.

2003
These companies run to their mommy and told on Microsoft. The EU mommy saw that Microsoft was hurting her children and punished Microsoft. Microsoft had to ship two versions of Windows; one with media player and one without. The one without had to show people some available players to download. This was some lawyer stuff called the anti-trust or something like that.

2004-June 2009
Microsoft vs EU in the courtrooms. A lot happened but the short story goes like that:
-EU: Bad Microsoft, you hurt my children. Pay the fine!
-MS: Nah, I don't wanna!
-EU: WAT?! YOU DISRESPECT ME?! More fines for you!
-MS: That's unfair! Why you fine me!
-EU: Because you push Media player to their faces. And i like Open source better! (see Novell Unix above)

Microsoft had to pay less than a billion to the companies hurt by Microsoft. But here comes the twist. The EU said that the companies no longer cared (actually it was some legal stuff that I don't know to explain) and instead of the companies I will keep the money, right here in my little pocket.

And Microsoft said "okay" :forever alone face:

October 2009
Microsoft releases Windows 7. And the EU was like "$$$ Cha-Ching $$$".
The story went like this:
-EU: Ehm, lets see, lets see...
-MS: What?! Everything's fine! No media player version and stuff!
-EU: But, what's this? Internet Explorer!? BLASPHEMEEERRR!!!
-MS: What's wrong now?!
-EU: IE in Windows?? That's a no-no!

And Microsoft said "okay" :unlucky brian face:
Microsoft had to ship Windows7 without IE and with an option to users to choose which browser they wanted (displaying a page with 12 popular browsers in random order)

2012
Microsoft fucked up. Something went wrong with the code and the page was not being displayed correctly. The rest are covered by this article.

And the story ends with the EU smiling slyly. Bhaahahahhahah

ps. I thought my history lesson was awesome! Who's with me?! Eh?! EH!?
Guys?! are you still here?! Dammit, i'm going home! :forever alone face:

 

[Spygon]

Americans welcome to what we call the EU where freedom of speech and freedom of choice is not just something we pretend companies will listen to.