Microsoft-EU, the war is over
Now you can choose the browser
ended the long standoff between the European Antitrust and the colossus of American sotware. What prevents a SuperMulti. What will change for European users of Microsoft Windows
-EU, the war is over now, you can choose the browser
Neelie Kroes, EU Competition Commissioner
BRUSSELS - The European Antitrust said yes. He finally accepted the proposals of the American computer giant putting an end to the long and expensive "browser war" and ensuring that those who use Windows in old continent to be able to browse the network with browsers other than Internet Explorer from Microsoft. "Millions of European consumers will benefit from the freedom of choice about the type of browser used," said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Microsoft - which with its Windows holds more than 90 per cent of the operating system market - Europe was in sight for insistence on the use of IE as default and do not uninstall software. The investigation - on charges of "abuse of dominant position" - was opened in January 2008. How will
now. The mechanism of "selection screen" will be simple: once in Windows, you will get a window with the title "Select your browser, without the characteristic features of Internet Explorer, where you'll find in a random order all the icons of the 12 most used browser in Europe, like Opera, Firefox, Safari or Chrome and others. The user can click on icons to get more information and just then another click to install the browser as the default choice for surfing the internet. This window, called "Choice Screen" will appear on all PCs that use Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, with Automatic Updates under these schemes. All from March 2010. So even the old people, those who already have a PC with Internet Explorer installed by default, will have the opportunity to choose. And they can also install more than one. But not only to computer makers, Microsoft will choose to completely uninstall Internet Explorer first to sell the PC or if coupled with other browsers that are already part of the envelope so the pc software before it runs out on the shelves.
Monitoring EU. Microsoft "will be held for between six months and then annually, a report on the implementation of these measures, and will be forced to make changes where necessary" for the next five years, said Ms Kroes. If you fail, the European Commission may impose a fine company to Redmond of up to 10% of annual turnover of the software giant. "The Commission needs a system to resolve any unexpected problems can occur, given the complexity of the computing market," added the Commissioner.
Promises Interoperability. The European Antitrust Authority, which has declared war on the company founded by Bill Gates for many years, has already fined Microsoft € 1.6 billion for keeping secret information about their denying their software interoperable with other manufacturers' programs. This is the direction Microsoft has assured the Commission (even if it is an informal commitment) to open some of its interoperability, making public of the source code behind Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint. The package interoperability of Microsoft, "Microsoft will include safeguards to third parties that may, in turn, be implemented privately, as well as a mechanism to resolve disputes quickly," he specified the Kroes.