French court says non to pre-loaded Windows on Acer laptop
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Man wins â¬811 damages over â¬599 laptop A French man has won a lawsuit against computer maker Acer over a laptop he bought that came pre-loaded with Microsoft's Windows XP and other applications he didn't want.â¦
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Microsoft's top legal advisor in Europe has urged the European Commission not to insist that key security features be stripped from its new Windows Vista operating system, amid an ongoing dispute.
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LUXEMBOURG -- Microsoft lost its appeal of a European antitrust order Monday that obliges the technology giant to share communications code with rivals, sell a copy of Windows without Media Player and pay a $613 million fine _ the largest ever by EU regulators.
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The court said Apple&#39;s refusal to license FairPlay was not anti-competitive. It also pointed out the availability of other devices that are compatible with Virgin&#39;s download site.
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Microsoft denied Wednesday that its software had arbitrarily changed Windows Vista's update settings, saying that users were responsible for the modifications that generated claims of unauthorized patch installs.Reacting to reports that first surfaced last Friday, a program manager for Windows Update said today that an investigation had turned up no evidence the Oct. 9 security fixes had switched settings in Vista's AU (Automatic Updates)."From the customer logs that we received, we found that none of the updates released as part of the October security release have made any changes to users' AU settings," said Nate Clinton in a post to a company blog. "In fact, in the logs we reviewed, AU in all cases was set to 'install updates automatically' prior to the October security release."Vista allows users to turn off AU entirely, tell the operating system to check for but neither download or install any fixes, instruct the mechanism to download files but not install them; or accept all patches without any additional approval.The claims that AU settings had mysteriously reverted to the "install automatically" setting began to trickle into a message forum on the AeroXperience Web site soon after the release last Tuesday of six security updates. Several users said that AU downloaded and installed patches even though they had specifically instructed Vista not to do so.But unlike last month, when a Windows newsletter revealed that Microsoft had updated users' PCs contrary to their instructions, the newest charges were limited to AeroXperience members. No similar reports, for example, were posted to the Windows Update support newsgroup hosted by Microsoft. During September's brouhaha, that newsgroup was thick with messages about the stealth updating.Certain that AU had not run amok and changed its own settings, Clinton fingered users for the altered state of AU. "I want to stress that the Windows Update client does not change AU settings without users' consent. However, AU settings can be set or changed in the following scenarios," he said, and then listed five; all require the user to take action or accept one option from several offered."During the installation of Windows Vista, the user chooses one of the first two recommended options in the 'Out of Box Experience' and elects to get updates automatically from Windows," Clinton said was one possibility. Another: "The user chooses to opt in to Microsoft Update during the installation or the first run experience of another Microsoft application such as Office 2007."Earlier, a Microsoft spokeswoman had been more blunt. "It may be more a case of someone clicking to change their AU settings but not realizing /remembering doing so," she said Tuesday.Users on AeroXperience writing to the forum after Microsoft wrapped up its investigation accepted Clinton's explanation. "The disparity between the Windows Update control panel applet and the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) update settings page (when first running Windows Vista) seems to be what's causing the confusion," said a member identified as Bryant.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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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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Europeâs second-highest court today upheld a ruling that found the software company abused its dominance in computer operating systems.
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Microsoft Corp. officials said Monday that the company has spent millions of dollars preparing a version of its Windows operating system without a program for playing digital music and videos, in the event it loses its bid to postpone antitrust sanctions ordered by European authorities. -The Washington Post
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I can't urge you strongly enough to read the article entitled How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In. It details how Microsoft has built into Vista the "trusted computing" ability to lock down Office files via DRM such that no unauthorized document reader will be able to decrypt and read them. This is perhaps one of the biggest hidden weapons Microsoft has in its arsenal that could sabotage Linux and OpenOffice.org if Microsoft succeeds in its attempt to plug SUSE and all Novell's "interoperability" bonuses.   Think of this, if you will, as the Tivoization of Office files, only with malicious intent.  Microsoft could, indeed, open up the document format completely and swear before God that it will never sue anyone for patent infringement.  However, this does not prevent Microsoft from locking Office files in such a way that only Vista users can read them.  No one else will be able to do so without the proper authorization, thus rendering the open format and Microsoft compatibility entirely meaningless.
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BRUSSELS Microsoft said Wednesday that it would not demand the withdrawal of evidence that was submitted to the European Court of First Instance last month by two former opponents that have since withdrawn from the antitrust case against the software giant
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User Account Control: insecure by design? Security researchers have taken issue with Microsoft's implementation of a security feature in Vista that is designed to stop users from routinely running systems in admin mode.â¦
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A European Union court on Wednesday  confirmed it had upheld curbs imposed by the EU's executive on  Microsoft, dismissing the software giant's appeal for a  suspension.
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Microsoft has told the European Court of First Instance that it should not have to share information with its competitors, arguing that revealing its secret would harm it irreparably.
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Europeâs second-highest court upheld today a 2004 antitrust ruling that found the software company had abused its dominance in operating systems.
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Orders computer giant to cough up refund An Italian judge ruled in favour of a Hewlett Packard (HP) customer who asked for a refund because the Compaq notebook he had bought came pre-loaded with Microsoft's Windows XP and Works 8.â¦
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The French Competition Council has dismissed a Virgin France complaint against Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL), saying that Apple did not violate rules regarding market dominance.
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The European Commission ruled in March that Microsoft had indulged in anti-competitive behaviour with Windows and set a fine of Â£333mn plus orders to produce a version of Windows without the Media Player within 90 days or face further action.