Software Makers Lobby EU Against Microsoft

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Adobe and Symantec are lobbying EU regulators for action against Vista, the Wall Street Journal reports. Adobe is calling for Microsoft to be barred from building into the OS free software that competes with Acrobat. From the article: 'Adobe and Symantec have told EU regulators that Vista has put them squarely in Microsoft's cross hairs. Symantec is concerned that Vista will direct consumers toward a Microsoft-designed security console, or box that shows what level various security functions, such as an Internet firewall, are set on. The rival company wants to be able automatically to override the Microsoft template with its own design and features, as it has been allowed to do in the past.'"

Comments

Re:Microsoft is doing the right thing

[irishPete]

-- You need a license to write to a PDF format.

This is incorrect. Adobe says you can freely write software that will create PDF format documents as long as you don't break the spec and give them copyright credit on it.

Re:Microsoft is doing the right thing

[14CharUsername]

And you are free, as a consumer, to not use the bundled products.

And apparently I'm also free to pay for these bundled apps as well. Now tell me why I should pay for Windows Vista + MS Defender and then just not use Defender and but and install Norton? I've already paid for MS Defender why would I buy Norton too?

This is Netscape all over again. What Symantec is complaining about is that Windows Defender will be installed automatically. If someone installs Norton, Norton will have to disable Windows Defender. Now Windows defender is going to report that "virus protection is disabled". This will make users think that their system isn't being protected anymore and will complain that Norton isn't working.

MS can't have it both ways. If windows Defender is a seperate product then it should be sold as seperate product. If its a part of windows then it should behave the same as the current XP security center behaves. That is when you install Norton or whatever then the security center tells the user that the system is being protected by Norton and give you its config options.

MS is basically arguing that Windows defender isn't like the XP security center in that its a separate product so they shouldn't have to allow other companies to alter it. But if its a seperate product why can't it be seperated from windows and sold on its own?

DOJ is doing nothing so you need the EU

[EmbeddedJanitor]

It seems crazy that a dispute between two US companies is being settled due to EU law. The US has very similar laws in this area, yet the DOJ has proven that they are doing nothing useful about curbing MS.