Microsoft Antitrust Compliance Questioned

rocketjam writes "Federal and State regulators overseeing Microsoft's compliance with their antitrust agreement with the government, are questioning whether Windows XP's "Shop for Music Online" feature violates the agreement's terms. Specifically, the feature invokes Microsoft Internet Explorer, even if the user has selected a different web browser as their default browser. A Microsoft representative said they believe they have adhered to the agreement."

Comments

Re:fix

[rizzo420]

isn't windowsupdate another thing that requires IE? i think that's pretty bad. get your security updates, but use an insecure browser to do it with. makes a lot of sense to me...

Is this another violation?

[erroneus]

My default browser under MacOS9 is Mozilla 1.3.1. MSIE does not exist on my Mac. I have, however, installed Outlook Express and MSN Messenger.

Whenever I click on a link within either of these two programs, an attempt is made to launch MSIE and not the default browser. Of course, nothing happens because both of these programs unsurprisingly launch only MSIE for this function.

Since this is MacOS, are they allowed to do this kind of thing? I assume "maybe" but if not, where do I submit my complaint?

Re:yes, this is a mshate zone...

[rizzo420]

itunes and napster allow you to use the default browser, which could be mozilla or opera or netscape or even IE. they aren't an alternative to IE, they are an alternative to using microsoft's music thing. microsoft is deceiving windows users into thinking that their default browser is whatever you set as it when it's really only the default browser for non-microsoft software. that's what the problem is.

not so necessary disclaimer: i am a microsoft windows user, and i was an IE/eudora user until about a week ago when i installed mozilla for both web and email. i do not hate microsoft products, i just hate their ways. i find windows 2000 to be a great OS (no joke here).

Re:*Yawn*

[grasshoppa]

Perhaps it is not I who is desensitised, but you who is hypersensitive to something as trivial as this.

I don't enjoy being forced to use a bug ridden software package that could, should I browse to the wrong site, allow a remote attacker to root my box.

So yeah, I am "hypersensitive".

Here's a clue, free of charge: It's your computer. Not MS's, Not the RIAA's, not Apple's and not the MPAA's. Yours. You may do with it what you wish, and if that means allowing MS to tell you what apps you get to use, that's your choice.

Note, however, that that would not be my choice.