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Europeans unhappy about `Vista'

Microsoft and the European Commission may once again be on a collision course over the shape of the company's next-generation computer operating system, Windows Vista.

Neelie Kroes, the commissioner in charge of competition and Europe's top antitrust official, warned that Microsoft could violate European antitrust laws if it bundled certain features with its Vista, her spokesman, Jonathan Todd, said on Wednesday.

Kroes, who described her concerns in a letter last week to Microsoft's Chief Executive Steven Ballmer, was referring to Microsoft's plans to bundle security features, search tools and other similar stand-alone software products into Vista.

"We are concerned about the possibility that Vista will include software elements which are available separately either sold by Microsoft or by other software companies," Todd said.

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's top lawyer in Europe, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that adding such functions to the operating system was essential if Microsoft was to meet customers' demands.

"I know consumers want more secure computer systems," he said.

Vista, which is expected to go on sale at the beginning of next year, will probably include a tool called Windows Defender designed to seek out spyware -- files that enter PCs through e-mail or from Web sites and secretly monitor them when they are connected to the Internet.

Forcing the company to sell Vista without Windows Defender "is a bit like forcing BMW to sell cars without air bags," Gutierrez said.

"We have a responsibility to make our products better and more secure for our customers," he said.

The commission's concerns about Vista echo the findings in its 2004 antitrust ruling against Microsoft. That investigation found that the company bundled its Media Player software into the Windows operating system to the detriment of rival music and video playing software programs.

It also ruled that Microsoft had stunted competition by withholding vital information about Windows from rival makers of server software, preventing them from building products that operate smoothly with the ubiquitous Windows.

Kroes outlined the same concerns with Vista.

"There is also the possibility that we won't have all the technical information needed for competitors to make their software inter-operable with Vista," her spokesman, Todd, said.
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