EU Windows Vista to include Adobe Reader but no antivirus
Bruno Segers, the former general manager of Microsoft Belgium has written an open letter to European Union Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes, published on his blog.In the letter, written in Dutch, Segers expresses concern that the EU's decision to force Microsoft to include Adobe Reader in the Windows Vista e version and remove any anti-virus bundled with it will lead to an operating system that is more expensive and less secure than non-European variants.
As a result, customers will choose the non-Euro versions of Windows Vista, Segers predicts.
Segers points to the experience with Windows XP, which the the EU said Microsoft must make available without Windows Media Player. This version sold poorly, Segers says.
Having customers buying non-Euro versions of Vista is not a problem for Microsoft worldwide, Segers says, but will ruin the European branches of the software giant. He accuses the EU commissioner of being a vassal of US companies lobbying in Brussels when they are no longer listened to in Washington DC.
(My Dutch isn't the best so the translation may not be accurate.)
This is quite interesting actually - I was wondering if the EU would allow Microsoft to bundle software with Vista like anti-viruses, but didn't expect that third-party programs would be mandated with the new OS.
The EU carries a very big stick in these matters, and Microsoft has no option but to comply.
Update The Brussels Journal has more details on Bruno Segers. Wonder if he was sacked because of speaking out on EU's plans? Or did he give away Ballmer's Plan B? (Plan A being a threat not to release Vista in the EU.)
Other related posts:
Windows Live Essentials betas seem good, but oh so flaky
Today’s incomprehensible Windows security warning
Today's strange Internet Explorer 8 error message
Comment by MikeE, on 12-Sep-2006 12:12
Good old law of unintended consquecences with regard to regulation striking again.
I always saw regulation of microsoft as a way of punishing them for being successfull and providing a product that customers wanted (they must, as they pay for it and pirate it all the time!). And regulation was just forcing products that people didn't want or weren't prepared to pay for "for their own good".
Leave it to the consumer to decide - if they want vista without the antivirus or with Adobe they'll demand it and it will be in MS's best interests to provide, if they don't then they won't. The heavy hand of regulation will do nothing to stop what people "want".
In effect all this regulation does is create a subsidy for adobe. I mean how would adobe feel if the regulator forced adobe to bundle a copy of windows with every adobe product (and force either adobe or its consumers to shoulder the cost) instead of their own (non existant) OS.
(It will be interesting to see the different replies on this from Techies vs Economists)...
Comment by Daniel, on 12-Sep-2006 13:35
Wait... Vista doesn't come with anti-virus bundled. It has links to other anti-virus programs, including One Care Live and other offers (that are non-Microsoft) from the Windows Security Center.
And why Adobe Reader? Vista doesn't contain any equivalent!
I have to agree with Microsoft on this one.
Comment by Molly, on 12-Sep-2006 20:35
The last official thing I read regarding Vista's XPS support wrt Adobe's complaints are at http://blogs.msdn.com/andy_simonds/archive/2006/06/02/XPSAdobe.aspx, which says:
"... That being said, in order to accommodate Adobe's concerns, we have made it so OEMs making PCs can choose to not include XPS as part of Windows. The core printing enhancements that we have made in Windows, where we have used XPS as the spool file format, is not removable. Since this makes printing better for everyone, and since Adobe and anyone else that serves the printing market has keen interest in Windows printing improving, there is no contention on that functionality."
I guess the EU not only wants XPS removed from being natively in XPS, the also want to force bundling Adobe's reader.
Something that occurred to me. I have Adobe Reader, and it has a Yahoo search control built into it. I heard that since I installed Adobe Reader, Adobe started bundling Google's toolbar with it. I would hope that the version that the EU forces MS to bundle doesn't additionally have Yahoo or Google controls to add to the forced bloat.
Comment by bradstewart, on 12-Sep-2006 22:28
When you go to download Reader or even flash, it trys to make you download the toolbar by default.
Comment by mt, on 12-Sep-2006 22:51
I hate EU has such attitude. I very much like Windows Media Player 11 (I've tried lots of other players and I must say I didn't enjoy any other product so much as the latest incarnation of wmp), and I also like Windows Defender as it is friendly and enough powerful at the same time.
For Adobe - everybody is forced to download it, so what's the problem?
Comment by Daniel, on 13-Sep-2006 12:13
Ahh, yes, XPS. I only noticed it in there when I started printing out stuff in Vista yesterday. Adobe Reader, funnily enough, doesn't come with a PDF Printer though, so how does this solve problems? Not to mention, if we don't see an XPS reader for Mac or Linux, I don't think Adobe have much to worry about.
Thing is, people don't want a dumbed down product, they want more for their money. If the N versions of Windows XP cost the same as their complete counterparts, then your typical consumer would find the complete version more "value for money." Now they are going to have a version without WMP and Windows Defender, so despite being free, people would still get their value for money in one box. The EU is idiotic.
Comment by MikeE, on 13-Sep-2006 15:05
This is the same EU which wanted to punish iTunes for being successful ...
Comment by Jules, on 17-Sep-2006 20:14
I'll bet that annoying "Adobe Quick View" thing will be included with that too - which slows down boot time and hogs system memory just in case you want to view a PDF some time. Guaranteed way to improve system performance and improve boot time - uninstall Adobe Reader!
I wonder if Microsoft could include, say, Sumatra's freeware PDF viewer instead of Adobe's one? It's much less of a resource hog and works just as well... but no I guess Adobe wants their one because they get paid money by Yahoo and Google for including those search toolbars.
Frustrating how some regulators just don't get IT. They are actually stopping Microsoft from adding stuff that people want, and that is a natural progression. It's like, no, you can't succeed, we want to disadvantage you until your competitors catch up. Oh, and you're planning to launch new products that compete with this other company? Dang well we'd better force you to give them a big helping hand then to make sure it's more difficult for you.
It's getting quite bizarre. I guess it's good revenue for the EU though, another way of collecting taxes.
Comment by Rory Browne, on 23-Sep-2006 11:48
I welcome that the EU is taking the responsability in keeping Microsoft in check wrt antitrust issues. Microsoft got off very easly last time there was an Antitrust Case in the US.
The US Dept of Justice, the EU Commission, and I agree that Microsoft shouldn't be allowed to rule the world using their OS Monopoly. I've no sympathy for MS on this issue, since I don't like the way they use their influence to dictate the way the world uses computers, and to dicate policy to national Governments.
I don't particulary think that Microsoft should be forced to include Adobe Acrobat, but that any suitable effective PDF reader should be installed, particularly since PDF is a standard, that Microsoft seek to replace with their own propriatory replacement. It's important that customers, even those with too slow of download speeds to dl acrobat, are afforded the choice of PDF/XDS like document format, and the decision is made by industry on the basis of merit, as opposed to which one MS perfers you to use.
Basic anti-virus should be built into the Operating System, with a choice of x-day trials, from any reputable anti-virus company who wishes to supply such a trial period offer.
Add a comment
Please note: comments that are inappropriate or promotional in nature will be deleted.
E-mail addresses are not displayed, but you must enter a valid e-mail address to confirm your comments.
Comment by freitasm, on 12-Sep-2006 11:16
I wonder if the message from the EU is really "Competition is great, providing you follow our rules, which may not apply to others, for whatever reason we see fit"...