Noted with fascination: “Microsoft to Alter Windows Vista”

Excerpted fron an article by Stephen Labaton published 20 June 2007 in The New York Times.

Concluding questions by NWI. Comments and insight are sought.

“Microsoft has agreed to make changes to its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint by Google that a feature of Vista is anticompetitive, lawyers involved in the case said on Tuesday.

“The settlement, reached in recent days by state prosecutors, the Justice Department and Microsoft, averted the prospect of litigation over a complaint by Google that Vista had been designed to frustrate computer users who want to use software other than Microsoft’s to search through files on their hard drives.

“Google had made its complaint confidentially as part of the consent decree proceedings set up to monitor Microsoft for any anticompetitive conduct after it settled a landmark antitrust lawsuit five years ago that had been brought by the states and the Clinton administration.

Questions:

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  • Is Microsoft really prepared to battle the European Union but capitulate to Google?
  • What other users might experience frustration from Vista and Microsoft?
  • Does Microsoft’s tacit concurrence of its anticompetitive design of Vista create opportuntiies for other actions?
  • If Google filed its complaint “confidentially”, why did Microsoft resolve the complaint publicly?
  • What would be the value to Microsoft if it were to merely compete on brilliance rather than bravado?

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- NWI staff

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