Windows Pressured to Add Browser

For the largest software company in the world, things are about to get grimmer each minute. The EC or the European Commission had long been forcing Microsoft to include the browsers of their rivals on their Windows package. The EC also confirmed that if not then they would be implementing plans that will severely punish Microsoft for reasons of illegal activity. This, according to the regulators, is because Microsoft had long been hurting their competitors for close to ten years now by the non-inclusion of other browsers. At the time that this was happening, Google is also prepared to join the other makers of Web browsers by stating that the Internet Explorer or IE browser of Windows has long made the market illegally uncompetitive. Such news means that there are strong signs of Microsoft having the ability to bundle their browser will be relegated to the past. Even the software giant itself had suggested this possibility barely a month ago. Now, things are looking to be a bit more certain.

Finalizing Rulings and Other Matters

The European Commission, which is the executive branch of EU or the European Union is currently waiting for the response of Microsoft as well as a hearing request. It has also yet to issue out their final ruling regarding this matter. However, Neelie Kroes who is the competition commissioner of the European Commission, says that they will likely push for the non-Microsoft type of web browsers to be part of the future European versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. This is also according to a lot of the comments that were made by a man named Jonathan Todd, who is a spokesperson for Neelie Kroes. Jonathan Todd was actually unavailable for commenting at that time.

However, there was another European Commission spokesperson that was able to confirm these statements to the website Internetnews.com. Here, he said that Jonathan Todd has indeed told this European news site about it. Jonathan Todd had mentioned to EurActive that should the European Commission confirm that the company Microsoft has indeed been involved in illegal blocking or rivals since 1996, then there would be impositions. If they are to be found that they have illegally blocked their rivals through the sole tie-in of Internet Explorer to Windows, then the European Commission would act swiftly. He claims that they would impose certain remedies that shall enable a lot of users as well as manufacturers to come up with unbiased choices of Internet Explorer and an additional third party browser.

No Speculations as of Late

At the moment, the European Commission would still not speculate regarding the implications. During an e-mail to the website InternetNews.com, one spokesperson said that the European Commission cannot, at this time, let out more details regarding the remedy and if such are really time-appropriate as well.