Ganging up
Mozilla, creator of the open source web browser Firefox and principal competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser has announced a desire to help the European Commission (EC) in its investigation of the bundling of IE with Windows based PCs.
The EC sent Microsoft a statement of objections last month, in which it expressed concerns that the automatic installation of IE in all Windows PCs gave Microsoft an unfair advantage over other browsers and thus could be determined to be uncompetitive.
In a recent blog posting, Mozilla chairperson Mitchell Baker referred to the EC statement: "Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice." She said "In my mind, there is absolutely no doubt that the statement above is correct."
Baker goes on to stress that the relative success of Firefox in penetrating Microsoft's dominance of the web browser market doesn't diminish the ECs claims. "A single anomaly does not indicate a healthy, competitive, or innovative system," she said.
In conclusion Baker says: "I'd like to offer Mozilla's expertise as a resource to the EC as it considers what an effective remedy would entail."
This could spice up and possibly even hasten the EC's case; it look five years to conclude a similar case concerning Windows Media Player. Do you think Microsoft is abusing its position by bundling IE with Windows? If so what do you think should be done about it? What browser do you use? Let us know in the HEXUS.community.
