Microsoft Corp will offer computer users a choice of rival Web browsers to ward off new EU antitrust fines, EU regulators and Microsoft said on Friday.
Microsoft said its proposal, if accepted by the European Commission, would “fully address” antitrust worries over its browser and “mark a big step forward in addressing a decade of legal issues.”
The EU has charged the company with monopoly abuse for tying the Internet Explorer browser to the Windows operating system installed on most of the world’s desktop computers.
PHOTO: AP
It welcomed Microsoft’s suggestions and said it would evaluate the proposal and seek input from other browser makers and computer companies before making a decision.
If approved, the proposal could be legally binding for five years.
On the browser case, Microsoft is suggesting that users of Windows XP, Vista or its latest release Windows 7 who have Internet Explorer set as the default browser would see a Web page prompting them to pick from five of the most popular browsers in Europe.
Existing Windows users would get the ballot screen from a software update.
Microsoft said the list of browsers would be reviewed twice a year based on usage data for the previous six months.
Microsoft’s browser is the most widely used worldwide, but Mozilla Corp’s Firefox is gaining in popularity.
Mozilla and Google Inc — which recently released the browser Chrome — are supporting the case against Microsoft.
Windows would still include Internet Explorer, but users would be able to disable it. Computer manufacturers would also be able to choose to install other browsers, set them as default and disable Internet Explorer.
The company had said last month that it would remove its browser from Windows entirely to avoid antitrust problems. Instead, it planned to give Internet Explorer away as a download or on a disc.
EU regulators slammed the idea, saying the 5 percent of people who buy Windows off the shelf wouldn’t have a real choice of browsers.
Most people buy the software pre-installed on a computer assembled by manufacturers such as Dell Inc or Hewlett-Packard Co.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said in a statement that until EU regulators rule on the company’s proposal, it will continue to require PC makers to sell computers with the browserless Windows 7 “E” version in the region. Windows 7 will go on sale on Oct. 22.
The ballot screen that Microsoft is proposing is close to what regulators called for in January when they asked Microsoft to offer several browsers on Windows.
Under that proposal, PC companies would have been responsible for building the browser-choosing technology.
Under Microsoft’s plan, the software maker would handle the technology.
The original ballot-screen proposal was also backed by Norwegian mobile Internet browser maker Opera Software ASA, which triggered the EU antitrust case by complaining that Microsoft was unfairly using its power as the dominant supplier of operating system software to squeeze out rivals.
Opera lawyer Thomas Vinje welcomed Microsoft’s announcement on Friday but said “the devil is in the detail” on how far it would go to calm antitrust fears.
Offering the ballot screen to existing Windows users “will change the world,” Vinje said, because it would encourage developers to make cross-platform software based on Web standards instead of tailoring their work to Microsoft software.
Microsoft has said that it fully complies with existing Internet standards.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS