EU may require Microsoft to include more browsers with Windows

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the European Union's European Commission could try something different in its never-ending dealings with Microsoft. It may require Microsoft to bundle additional browsers with Windows as a sanction for what it says is an anti-competitive practice of bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. Opera Software filed a complaint to the European Commission in December, 2007, over Microsoft's inclusion of IE with Windows and in January the EC agreed with Opera.

The general thought was that the EC would require Microsoft to take Internet Explorer out of Windows. But
blogger Paul Thurrott notes that the EC tried such a tactic in 2004 when it determined that the inclusion of Windows Media Player was an anti-competitive threat to RealNetworks. Microsoft offered a version of Windows without WMP and also offered one, at the same price, with WMP. No one wanted the version without the media player feature.

Likewise, the EU at the time also tried to force Microsoft to include the RealNetworks player with Windows, which Microsoft did. Unfortunately, users were on their own to get updates of the competitive player, and it quickly became outmoded.

In the meantime, Microsoft is slowly losing its place as a so-called monopoly, as competitive desktop products arise. For instance, Red Hat last week won a battle to force Switzerland to send its desktop licensing renewal contract out to bid on the basis that not doing so violated Swiss law. Microsoft is no longer the sole source for desktop operating systems and software, Red Hat argued. A Swiss court agreed and canceled the already-signed $39 million renewal contract until a proper bidding war could take place.

The success of Firefox, and to some extent Google Chrome, proves that the traditional monopoly argument is outmoded as well. Forcing Microsoft to be responsible for including competitive wares with its operating system is pointless as is forcing it to not include a browser with Windows. (Is the EC also going to make Apple yank Safari out of Mac OS X? Not likely.)

Microsoft has been forced to publish the guidelines for building Windows software although it dragged its feet on doing so -- which truly hurt it while fueling its competitors. As long as users have a choice of Windows software they are more than capable of shopping for and installing it on their own. If the time comes when they no longer have adequate Windows software, there's always the (generally more expensive) Mac and the (generally less expensive) Linux world to run to. The EC needs to stop seeking out reasons to give Microsoft a shove, or a fine. Microsoft is doing a good enough job in fostering competition by alienating customers on its own.

Visit the Microsoft Subnet web site for more news, blogs, podcasts. Subscribe to all Microsoft Subnet bloggers. Sign up for the bi-weekly Microsoft newsletter. (Click on News/Microsoft News Alert.)

Microsoft to show off "Kumo" and offer more ad-supported cloud services
Microsoft demos SecondLight 3D UI with its next-gen Surface
Microsoft Early Releases Prove Useful to Malware Creators Too
PowerShell Summer Scripting Games 2009 (Announced)
Windows 7 and WS2008 R2 ship date: holiday '09
CIOs seem to love VMware over Hyper-V
Using offshore certified Microsoft partners? Beware of security holes
12 killer freebie SharePoint add-ons

Follow Microsoft Subnet on Twitter

• Microsoft
• browsers
• bundling
• European Commission
• Internet Explorer
• Microsoft anti-trust
• Microsoft lawsuits
• Opera Software