The EU and Microsoft Settle Browser Issue; Interoperability with FOSS Still a Problem

“Microsoft’s commitments on interoperability are unilateral, but
you can sue them if you can afford to, and the Commission says it
will be watching how they do while they continue to consider the
remaining complaints about standards. Here’s the EU Commission
press release and Microsoft’s statement, along with links to all
the documents. Here’s the new one about patents and open source. In
Microsoft’s proprietary .doc format. Here’s the ECIS statement,
ECIS standing for European Committee for Interoperable Systems. And
Bloomberg’s report on the deal, which mentions the three remaining
complaints:

” “Big chunks of the Microsoft problem have been solved,” said
Maurits Dolmans, a lawyer for ECIS from Cleary Gottlieb Steen &
Hamilton LLP.

” Dolmans said there are three other complaints against
Microsoft. ECIS has complained that Microsoft changes standards on
its Office software so that documents made in other formats don’t
appear correctly.

“Indeed. You might also want to read Mozilla’s reaction from
Mitchell Baker and here’s part of the Opera statement:

“Opera Software today announced that Web users are the winners
upon the completion of the European Commission’s investigation into
Microsoft’s browser-bundling practices. Microsoft will now offer
users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 a screen
presenting a choice of Web browsers. In December 2007, Opera
Software urged the European Commission to investigate Microsoft’s
abuse of its dominant market position and the company’s bundling of
Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system.”

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