Microsoft denies Opera lawsuit claims
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Bill and the Boyz say they’re not abusing their dominant market position to lock users into Internet Explorer.
The assertion comes in an attempted rebuttal to a lawsuit claim by Norway’s Opera which says Microsoft has done exactly that by tying its browser, Internet Explorer, to the Windows operating system, “and by hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards”.
However, “Microsoft can’t deny that Internet Explorer is tied to Windows because they now renamed it ‘Windows’ Internet Explorer, observes Pablo in a Readers Write.
But, “We believe the inclusion of the (IE) browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers are already free to choose to use any browsers they wish,” Says the company, according to CNET News.
“Internet Explorer has been an integral part of the Windows operating system for over a decade and supports a wide range of Web standards.”
A Microsoft spokesperson says computer users, “have complete freedom of choice to use and set as default any browser they wish, including Opera, and PC manufacturers can also preinstall any browser as the default on any Windows machine they sell.”
Also See:
Opera sues Microsoft in Europe, December 13, 2007
Microsoft strikes back at Opera antitrust claims, December 14, 2007
Want to help p2pnet stay online? Please click here.
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
December 17th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Sure they can set a default, but you notice you can’t uninstall IE…
December 17th, 2007 at 11:47 am
…nice argument! It has been in the OS for a decade! If you kill somebody, and nobody finds out or sues you for 10 years, you are still in the wrong!
December 17th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
the first version of windows 95 was the most stable windows version I have ever used and no IE. Says alot for Microsoft does’nt it.
December 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
They could of course provide a simple http get app to download a browser of choice. That way, there’s no need for IE. The URLs for the most popular browsers could be preprogrammed, or downloaded on demand; which ever is most suitable. I would prefer it that way. Then I would never have to use the monstrosity that is ‘Internet explorer’.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I don’t use IE and I dislike the security holes in this particular browser. I would feel much better to get rid of it and have it off the computer entirely. Of course with M$’s idea of only accepting their own browser for updates is a bit of a problem but even given that, as a choice between the two, I would rather have IE and it’s code off the computer.
There is no method I have found for removing IE from Vista short of manually editing the registry to kill it.
After M$ won the browser wars of the mid 80’s, that was the end of continued fine tuning of the browser until FireFox showed if people had a choice, it would not be IE.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I have never used IE on my personal computer at home (except to handle updates), and do not understand why every business I have ever worked at uses IE instead of something like Firefox which is noticeably more secure.