Adobe, Symantec Criticize Vista to EU
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Adobe Systems and Symantec are planning to ask European Union regulators to take action against Microsoft's forthcoming operating system, Vista, which the companies believe has features that undercut rivals.
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Software giant battles activation of unauthorized copies of its new Vista OS.
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Status report notes compliance, but European Union continues to study Vista specs.
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One security firm says Vista is vulnerable to current threats; another isn't so sure.
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The European Union's top competition  regulator clashed with Microsoft  on Tuesday over  security upgrades in the U.S. software giant's new Windows  Vista operating system in a re-run of past antitrust battles.
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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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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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InfoWorld - As Windows Vista&#160;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.
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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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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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Computerworld readers across the country have written in angered and frustrated by anitpiracy features that are included in the new Vista operating system.
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(InfoWorld) - European Commissioner for competition Neelie Kroes Tuesday denied she is conducting a personal vendetta against Microsoft. Her comments came in response to what she called âa coordinated campaignâ by Microsoft against Europeâs top antitrust regulator. âFar from pursuing a vendetta against Microsoft, the Commissionâs actions are guided by the desire to create the most innovation-friendly business climate in Europe to the ultimate benefit of European consumers,â Kroes wrote in a letter in Tuesdayâs Financial Times. Earlier this month Microsoft warned that ongoing antitrust problems in Europe mayÂ delay the European launch of Windows Vista, the new version of the companyâs flagship operating system. It accused the Commission of not giving it sufficiently clear guidance on whether Vista would pass muster under European antitrust law. It also presented research it had commissioned that showed that hundreds of thousands ofÂ jobs in the European IT industry were at stakeÂ if Vistaâs launch in the region was delayed. âThere appears to be a co-ordinated campaign to portray the Commission in a negative light,â Kroes wrote. âFor example, I have seen it suggested that the Commission may seek toÂ prevent Microsoft from improving the securityÂ of its operating system. This is categorically not the case,â she wrote. The Commission has been giving feedback to Microsoft since the spring about how to avoid similar antitrust problems with Vista that it experienced with its predecessor, Windows XP. The Commission warned Microsoft that its plan to equip Vista with its own security software may amount to bundling and it urged the software company not to shut out rivals in the security software market. In 2004 the Commission found Microsoft guilty of shutting out rivals in the media player software market by bundling its Media Player with Windows. The company was also guilty of abusing its position in the workgroup server OS market. Microsoft was fined almost â¬500 million ($633 million) and was required to release a version of Windows without Media Player. In addition, Microsoft needed to make its server products better interoperate with competitors' offerings. Earlier this year it wasÂ fined an additional â¬280.5 millionÂ for failing to reveal details about the workings of Windows, as it was ordered to in the 2004 ruling. Microsoft has now submitted the information, which the Commission believes is necessary for restoring competition in the market for server operating systems. The Commission will decide in the coming months whether the information is sufficient. Meanwhile, the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg is considering an appeal of the 2004 antitrust ruling lodged by Microsoft. The Court follows no strict timeframe. Most observers expect a ruling by next summer.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Executives from Symantec on Wednesday strongly criticized Microsoft for locking down access to the Windows kernel in the upcoming Vista, though they stopped short of accusing the company of an antitrust violation.
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Microsoft is fighting back against those attempting to distribute a cracked version of Windows Vista. It has issued an update to detect use of a tampered build which mixed files from test and final versions of the OS.
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The war of words between Microsoft and the EU continued Tuesday, with the European Commission warning that Windows Vista's built-in security features should not shut third party vendors out of the market.
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European antitrust regulators' victory over Microsoft was a resounding smack at the software maker's old business practices, but it left analysts divided as to how the company's new businesses, including Windows Vista, might be affected.
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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