PR: FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software is excluded from interoperability
Matthias Kirschner
mk at fsfe.org
Wed Dec 16 15:44:16 UTC 2009
We just published a PR [1] about:
FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free
Software is excluded from interoperability
Free Software Foundation Europe congratulates the European Commission on
pushing Microsoft to give users greater choice between different
browsers. "The selection screen will make users aware that they can make
their own choices," says Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President. "We are glad
that FSFE has helped the Commission to put limits to Microsoft's desktop
monopoly."
The Commission announced today that it has settled its antitrust case
against Microsoft regarding web browsers. FSFE participated in the case
as an interested third party. "Microsoft has abused its dominant market
position to push out competitors by tying its own browser to the Windows
operating system," says Gerloff. "The company's continued refusal to
comply with Open Standards [2]
also means that many websites today are designed to work only with
Internet Explorer, leaving users of other browsers at a disadvantage."
== Interoperability ==
The European Commission is also investigating the way Microsoft prevents
competitors from interfacing with many of its desktop productivity
programs. Microsoft has offered a unilateral commitment. Yet these
promises are useless for Free Software developers, since they exclude
commercial use of Microsoft's interoperability information.
Carlo Piana, FSFE's legal counsel, says: "The patent commitments are
clearly insufficient, because they don't allow commercial exploitation.
This keeps out competition from Free Software, which in many areas is
the biggest competitor to Microsoft's programs. Instead, Microsoft will
continue to threaten commercial Free Software developers and their
customers with patent FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt)."
FSFE's President Karsten Gerloff says: "We welcome the Commission's
decision to keep the interoperability investigation open while it
monitors whether Microsoft's promises help to promote competition. We
are confident that the Commission will take action if the commitment
doesn't improve things for Free Software."
Distrubte it when you think it makes sense. On identi.ca we wrote about
it on !fsfe, !gnu, and !fs. You can also vote for the news on fsdaily
[3]. And of course discuss it here :)
Best wishes,
Matthias
1. http://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091216-01.en.html
2. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html
3. http://www.fsdaily.com/Business/Non_commercial_is_NOT_Free_Software_Microsoft_understands_this/who_voted
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