SourceMozilla Foundation officials last week launched a concerted campaign to prod European Union antitrust regulators to demand more from Microsoft Corp. than the browser ballot screen the company has promised to offer Windows 7 users later this year.
Microsoft told EU antitrust officers on July 24 that to ease their concerns about its market dominance, it would provide European users a choice of Web browsers with its upcoming Windows 7 operating system.
Mitchell Baker, the former CEO and current chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation, and Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's chief counsel, last week wrote lengthy blog posts citing their concerns about the Microsoft proposal and spelling out the changes they want to see in Windows 7.
John Lilly, Mozilla's current CEO, called the blog posts "part of our effort to get across our point of view. In principle, [Microsoft's proposal] sounds good, but in practice, the way they implement it will make a big difference."
In one of last week's posts, Baker argued that even if the plan were accepted, IE would enjoy most-favored-browser status. "Even if everything in the currently proposed settlement is implemented in the most positive way, IE will still have a unique and uniquely privileged position on Windows installations," she said.
Anderson said that his concerns about the plan include IE's continued ties with other Microsoft software, particularly Office, and the unfair advantage IE would maintain because the other browsers must be downloaded.
Mozilla is also calling on Microsoft to extend its plans for EU countries to users around the world.
EU regulators have not set a timetable for a final decision on Microsoft's proposal, but sources close to Microsoft have said they expect a resolution before the end of October.
Ain't life grand. Who will be next to fine something that shouldn't be in Windows OS. This is getting a wee bit stupid. Maybe it is time to go after Linux for including Firefox in all of their distros, or maybe apple for including only Safari in their System. What ever happened to if I build it then only I have the right to decide what should be included.
I see no reason for such stupid things becoming a "news". Its just a matter of a browser. If its not included, get another one. That's so simple.
How can apple get away with inflicting Quicktime on me as part of the Itunes software?? surely this practice must now also be banned.
boycott firefox! Theyre just making life harder for computer users. They should be thankful of a fair and reasonable ballot box.
Oh no, here we go again.In some ways, I can understand Opera's stance on this as they would like to get a decent foothold in the browser market - but Mozilla FireFox? They already have a decent share, and tactics like this can only do one thing. This is to alienate people who might have chosen FF. Personally, I prefer and use IE, but that is my choice.
As I have stated elsewhere, I don't see the problem in having IE included. Although it is the default browser, MS accepts that there are other browsers available (I've already mentioned 2 in this post, and there are countless others also available with varying amounts of market share), and as such gives you the option to download and use whichever one you wish.
Very well put, Lee.Lee said:
Imagine buying a car, only to find that there is no engine in it because a rival manufacturer has complained that the car builder wants to use its own engines instead of an alternative?
I have only one comment to make with all of that, and it's this:
What's next? Makers of Windows management utilities can sue to have Task Manager removed?
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