Microsoft in EU Vista stand-off
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Microsoft is locked in a war of words with Brussels about the launch of its new Windows Vista operating system.
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Microsoft Corp. will be ready to comply with the European Commission&#39;s demands for changes to its Windows operating systems if a European court rejects its request for the measures to be suspended, a spokesman for the company said Monday.
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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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The European Commission said that Microsoft has met a key deadline in its antitrust standoff with the US software giant, staving off the threat of further fines.
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Opinion: Unbundling integrated pieces of Windows just might be the bitter pill that Microsoft needs. There&#39;s no Christmas present that Microsoft officials want more than the European Union&#39;s remedies to be
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(InfoWorld) - Any attempt to incorporate its own security software in Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp.'s next generation operating system, could spark a new antitrust spat with Europe's top regulator, the European Commission, spokesman Jonathan Todd warned Tuesday.Todd told Microsoft not to shut out security software rivals. Diversity and innovation could be at risk if Microsoft bundles its own security software with its dominant OS, he said. Microsoft warned last week that Vista, due to launch early next year, may be delayed in Europe because of the regulator's concerns. Earlier Tuesday the company said it hoped the Commission would not demand the removal of important security features from Windows Vista in Europe. "One of our principal concerns is that European consumers have access to the same new security features in Windows Vista as everyone else," said Erich Andersen, vice president and associate general counsel for Europe. "We want to launch Windows Vista in a fully lawful manner and we want to avoid regulatory decisions that could increase security risks for European consumers."The spat over Vista's security features is similar to the disagreement over bundling Media Player, Microsoft's audio and video playing software, into Windows XP. Two and a half years ago the Commission found Microsoft guilty of foreclosing the market for audio and video players by attaching Media Player to its operating system. It ordered the company to offer a second version of Windows with Media Player stripped out and fined Microsoft â¬497 million (US$610 million at the time) for abusing its dominant position in the market. The remedy Microsoft proposed is widely seen as a failure. Sales of the unbundled version of Windows, dubbed Edition N, are almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, Todd said last week that the remedy's true value is as a precedent for future bundling issues that could arise from the launch of future versions of Windows, including Vista. Microsoft was misleading people by implying that a possible delay to Vista's launch in Europe would be due to the regulator, he said "It is not up to us to tell Microsoft what it has to do to Vista. The onus is on Microsoft to design its product in conformity with European competition laws which it is well aware of," he said.
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European Court rejects Microsoft's appeal in historic case. Court sides with European Commission on three significant areas.
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Software giant battles activation of unauthorized copies of its new Vista OS.
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I have no problem with Microsoft operating in a market environment. Given a choice, I am sure many of us would gladly pay for Windows and Office rather than use Linux and Open Office.
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The European Union&#39;s Court of First Instance has rejected Microsoft&#39;s appeal of the European Commission&#39;s 2004 landmark antitrust decision against the company, which concluded that the software giant had abused its dominant position in the computer industry &quot;by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems.&quot;
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Blog: The software maker has put a halt to an effort by a group of developers that wanted to build an operating system on top of an early test version of the Vista predecessor.
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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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(InfoWorld) - When MicrosoftÂ releases Windows VistaÂ to business customers in Europe on Thursday, it will be offering an extra version of the OS to comply with the European Commission's antitrust ruling against the company. In itsÂ 2004 decision, the Commission ordered Microsoft to release additional versions of Windows that comeÂ without its Windows Media Player software. The idea was to prevent Microsoft's dominance in the desktop OS market from giving it an unfair advantage over rivals like RealNetworksÂ and Apple Computer. That resulted in versions of Windows XP called "Edition N," which sold for the same price as the standard Windows XP. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft is having to do the same again. The company was still working with the Commission to determine exactly how many N versions are required, but it expects to offer them for both home and business users, said Thor Windham-Wright, a spokesman with Microsoft's public relations agency. "To comply with the ruling, Microsoft will have to produce an Edition N for all future editions of Windows," confirmed Tom Brookes, Microsoft's spokesman in Brussels. Microsoft released Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise to its volume licensing customers on Thursday, along with Exchange Server 2007, its e-mail server product, and the Office 2007 productivity suite. The consumer editions of Windows Vista are due for release on Jan. 30. The main advances in Vista are better security, its revamped Aero user interface and, for businesses, features to help to reduce PC management costs, Microsoft has said. Critics have noted that there has been little support from PC makers for the "N" versions of Windows, undermining the effectiveness of the Commission's ruling. Most PC makers chose not to offer Windows XP PCs with Edition N, citing little interest from customers and the expense of supporting extra versions of the OS. The antitrust ruling also ordered Microsoft to release protocols used by its work group servers to allow competing software to operate more smoothly with Windows. It isn't launching the server version of Vista,Â code-named Longhorn, until late 2007, so the company doesn't have to submit the protocol information for it yet. âDocumentation for Vista work group server products would be needed when they do launch a Vista server system, but we donât require documentation from the Vista PC OS,â Todd said. If rival software manufacturers are unhappy about Vistaâs impact on competition and complain to the European competition regulator, Todd said the Commission will consider their complaints âon their merits.â It's hard to predict how the coming months will proceed with Microsoft's competitors and the Commission, said Michael Silver, research vice president with Gartner Inc. "I think as long as Microsoft is around and they're dominant they're going to attract companies that say they are being treated unfairly," he said. Enterprises in Europe will probably take longer to adopt Vista than those in the U.S., since European companies typically use their hardware and software longer, Silver said. Gartner predicts most organizations will test Vista for 12 to 18 months before widely deploying the OS. "Certainly, this is just a beginning," Silver said. But Microsoft was quick to promote early adopters. The Arsenal soccer club, which plays at Emirates Stadium where Microsoft is holding its U.K. launch event Thursday afternoon, is among those already using the new software, the company said. (Paul Meller in Brussels contributed to this report.) Â
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The world&#39;s software giant Microsoft Corp. said it would comply with the European Commission (EC) &#39;s orders if it fails this week to persuade the European Court of Justice to suspend the EC&#39;s decision.
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BREAKING NEWS - The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg has ruled against Microsoft in its appeal of a March 2004 finding of the European Commission. In so doing, the Court upholds the EC's finding that Microsoft abused its dominant market position in Europe, first by failing to supply access to its protocols for enabling interoperability with its communications software in Windows and Windows Server, and second by bundling its Media Player with Windows XP.
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EC probe extended, McAfee puts boot in More bad news for Microsoft's delayed operating system Vista - the European Commission is widening an investigation into whether or not it breaches competition law.â¦
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Some EU Parliament members fear Europe won't get Vista OS on time.