Microsoft caves to EU antitrust pressure over IE
(ComputerWorld)

I have to feel sorry for Microsoft here.

Microsoft wants to get on with selling and promoting their new version of the OS and the EU Commission has yet to decide what Microsoft must do to comply with the law. It is not easy to engage in illegal practices. Microsoft lawyers must be working overtime. They know they are illegal but do not know what they can get away with.

Of course Microsoft already knows that commingling the code between the OS and IE violates US antitrust laws. The US Courts have already decided that.

But, Microsoft wants to continue illegal operations. And it is finding that fairly hard to do. They do not know if the laws will be enforced or not. In the US they were absolutely NOT enforced because the US DOJ wanted to establish an additional monopoly product for Microsoft. You have to be really naive to not know that.

What the EU should do is require Microsoft's OS (you know, the ones without IE in them supposedly) to sell for $35 less. That way individual consumers will have the funds necessary to vote for a browser of their choice with their money.

You know, like consumers are suppose to be capable of doing.

Then Microsoft can go back to the way they first sold IE. You pay your money and you get your product.

And, if perchance, some distributors do which to make their browser available without cost or have a different revenue model, consumers can keep their $35 and go with some other browser other than IE.

Of course, Microsoft wants to rape consumers with IE and make them pay for it just like they have been doing the last 14 years.

But, it is hard to control price. For one you have a wholesale price and a retail price. And for many sales, the retail amount for the OS much less other included products is just not itemized for the consumer. Simply put, if the consumer is not given an option to refuse the technology, the price is not itemized. And, of course Microsoft wants to use its monopoly power to force any number of key products upon all consumers if they ever make the decision to buy any Microsoft branded product.

Would any consumer pay Microsoft $35 to get those icons displayed on their desktop?

Most likely not, right. And that suggests again that the only thing Microsoft is really suggesting lately is that the icons are hidden. In other words, Microsoft is attempting to commit fraud yet again. Nobody is going to pay $35 to have their icons re-enabled. So that would be “free”, right?

But, consumers would still be forced to pay for almost all of the technology otherwise identified as IE. No difference in other words. Consumers are still forced to buy Microsoft technology. Even though Microsoft claims they do not get it?

Microsoft is trying very hard to defraud consumers here. There is no question about that. Making consumers pay for technology (which they do get) while claiming it is not provided.

If IE is truly removed, a check on the size of the OS sans IE should be revealing. How much smaller is the “EU version” of the OS? Should be about the size of Firefox or Chrome, right?

But, if the EU really wants to ensure fair and open competition in browsers, the price of the OS from Microsoft must be reduced by about $35. That would enable for both competition in browsers and the development of a revenue model for browsers.

Economically speaking it will never be a fair and open market unless there is a revenue model. At least the possibility of a revenue model. And that is why bundling multiple browsers will never work. Nor, will allowing consumers to freely download a second browser of their choice.

I still see idiots claiming that forcing the sale of IE is okay because everyone can later download the browser of their choice. That is truly stupid. It is like saying anyone can get a job as the VP of a company even though the owner nephew has to be hired for that slot first. Truly those idiots who claim that is okay do not have someone in their job hired first but they can work for free too if they want to.

The EU needs to fix this problem. And when they do (and if they do) the US DOJ has to get off their duff and fix the problem in the US as well.

I have to keep saying this because the trade press is too ignorant about the US laws. The US Appellate Court found that commingling the code between the OS and IE is illegal. That specific issue was appealed to the US Supreme Court and they declined to hear that issue. So that is the US law. And Microsoft is selling their OS in violation of US law. It is just not being enforced. And it is about time it is enforced.

Code must be separated out. And the OS must be sold separate from IE. Sold to the consumer separate from IE. Not just to OEMs that can be manipulated to put it back in and screw the consumer anyway. It is the consumer that must see the OS unbundled and not commingled with IE.

And it is really too bad that Microsoft wants to continue illegal practices and refused to comply with known laws in the US and the EU.

After all, it is really important to Microsoft to be able to rape consumers.