Plan for Vista Draws Warning to Microsoft From Europe
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The E.U. warned Microsoft against foreclosing competition in computer security software by tying new security features into Windows Vista.
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LUXEMBOURG Microsoft warned a European appeals court on Thursday that software developers and consumers would face dire consequences should legal sanctions intended to hinder its ability to dominate the markets for desktop media players and server
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Microsoft warned a European appeals court that software developers and consumers would face dire consequences should it be penalized.
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Microsoft may have pushed a too-aggressive XP transition schedule because of how long it took to release Vista, an analyst suggests.
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The European Commission turned up the  pressure on Microsoft  on Thursday, warning the U.S.  software giant of new fines and accusing it of serial defiance  of an antitrust ruling made nearly three years ago.
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Microsoft raised the possibility on   Thursday that it might delay the introduction of its new Vista   Windows operating system in Europe, saying it depended on the   European Commission's antitrust requirements.
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Microsoft Corp will suffer serious harm if it is forced to provide a version of Windows without Windows Media Player audio-visual software, its lawyer told a European Union court on Friday.
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The release of Microsoft Corp.'s   much-anticipated Windows Vista operating system will  drive $40 billion in economic activity and create 100,000 new  jobs in six European countries next year, a study said on  Thursday.
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Microsoft, which will on Monday learn whether a top European Union court has annulled the landmark 2004 antitrust ruling against the US software developer, is warning technology rivals they should be careful what they wish for.
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Symantec and Adobe complain to the European Commission about Vista security and electronic document features.
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Microsoft  said on Thursday it  remained on track to launch its Windows Vista operating system  in Europe in January but again asked the European Commission to  detail concerns it may have with the software.
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Shouldn't be running in our classrooms Microsoftâs hopes of getting Vista into British classrooms have been held back at least another year after Becta issued a scathing report on the operating system and its equally fresh-faced twin, Office 2007.â¦
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The EU executive commission rejected what it said had been a suggestion from US software giant Microsoft that it was delaying the launch of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system in Europe.
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Microsoft is pushing hard to get its next-generation Windows operating system ready for a public launch in January, but now it has a new hurdle: the European Commission has raised concerns about Vista. The Redmond company said a delay may occur if the EU demands changes to the product.
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(InfoWorld) - As Windows VistaÂ appeared in computer stores worldwide, Microsoft said Tuesday that part of the design of the new operating system is the work of the European Commission. "Following discussions with European Commission, Microsoft committed to make a number of changes to the Windows Vista operating system prior to release," the software maker said in a statement, pointing to three functions of the operating system: security, search, and fixed document formats. Windows Security Center (WSC), which looks like a dashboard, gives the user an overview of what security software is running on the system and the status of checks and upgrades of firewalls and antispyware protection. Rival security software firms and the Commission suspected this could give WSC an unfair advantage. Microsoft said it agreed to develop a new set of APIsÂ for release in the first service pack, scheduled for later this year, which can be invoked by third-party security programs to turn off the alerts presented by WSC. Similarly, PatchGuard -- software that protects against the modification of the kernel of the operating system -- has been added to Vista. Some security vendors have in the past made modifications to the kernel as part of the implementation of their security software. PatchGuard prevents such modifications in the 64-bit version. Microsoft is now working with vendors to develop new kernel-level APIs that will provide programmatic access to the kernel to address this issue, Microsoft said. The APIs will be available in Windows Vista 64 with the first service pack, scheduled for later this year. Regarding search, Microsoft has changed the way default settings are made for Internet search within both Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). "These changes now ensure for users that they are able -- through a series of windows and options -- to make a clear, conscious, and open decision on their default search provider. Furthermore, users will retain at all times the ability to change this and all further defaults in the operating system at will," Microsoft said. Microsoft's own fixed document format software is known as XPS. "In response to the Commission's concerns, the company has made fundamental changes to the licensing structure of the XPS fixed-format technology and has committed to submit the technology to an international standards body for adoption as an open industry standard," Microsoft said. The XPS standard will be made available under licensing terms that do not exclude any industry or licensing model including the GPL (general public license), it said. "In response to Commissioner Kroes' letter of March 2006, Microsoft created a singleÂ API so that independent software developers can create applications to allow users to save documents in XPS or other formats, such as Adobe's PDF," Microsoft said. Microsoft said it has also disclosed through a licensing program the relevant information to enable the implementation of XPS technology on competing client and server operating systems. Microsoft has also responded to a further Commission demand to submit XPS (as well as future extensions) to a standards-setting body. Microsoft will submit XPS to the Ecma International. Microsoft said it will also enable the implementation of XPS under an open-source business model (GPL) through use of a covenant not to sue -- a model that Microsoft has applied to Web services and open XMLÂ  document formats and that has, it said, "been welcomed by the open-source community." European customers and OEMs will be able to buy a version of Vista that has Microsoft's Media Player stripped out. This unbundled version of the operating system complies with the 2004 European antitrust ruling, which ordered the company to offer two separate versions of both the home and professional versions of the operating system. "In compliance with the European Commission's decision of March 2004, home and professional editions of Windows Vista without Media Player functionality will be released in Europe on the same schedule as the Windows Vista general availability launch," Microsoft said. These are called the 'N' versions -- denoting "no media player," the company said.
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Another potential delay for Vista looms from the security front, as European Union regulators and Microsoft square off over planned features in the upcoming operating system.
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LUXEMBOURG Facing the prospect of its most serious legal setback ever, Microsoft is quietly making plans to radically alter the way it does business in Europe, including sharing confidential software code with competitors and selling Windows without its