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Windows RT Browser Restrictions Draw Antitrust Attention
An anonymous reader writes "Last week we heard complaints from Mozilla that Windows RT would restrict users' choice in web browsers, unfairly favoring Internet Explorer over alternatives like Firefox and Chrome. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the situation is now on the Senate Judiciary Committee's radar, and they will look into claims that Microsoft is engaging in anti-competitive behavior. That said, it could be a difficult case to make, since Windows RT is destined for ARM-based tablets, and Apple currently dominates that market. 'When it comes to proving abuse of monopoly power, an important question is determining the market in which a monopolist has power — the relevant market, in antitrust legal terms. In the [late '90s] DOJ case, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact concluded Microsoft had a monopoly in the market for "Intel-compatible PC operating systems." Windows on ARM doesn't run on x86 chips, so by Jackson's standards, Windows RT hasn't been judged to be part of Microsoft's monopoly.' Microsoft addressed some of these issues in a blog post in February."
Apple's stance is the same reason we don't want non-Microsoft browsers ruining the security of our Windows RT tablets and draining battery. IE9 (and IE10 more so) are currently the most secure browsers on the market.
Firefox lacks completely security features like sandboxing, just-in-time (JIT) hardening and plug-in security. Internet Explorer can withstand against attacks to Flash and PDF Reader (most attacks now are against third party software), while Firefox just lets them infect the system. On top of that Firefox is extremely resource needing which would just drain the battery on tablets. No thanks, give me IE any day over that. (Yes, I know old IE's suck.. but try the new ones, they're actually good. Much like Chrome)