Microsoft has been having antitrust issues with the European Union for a while now and has paid some pretty hefty fines. Now they may have more issues coming. Opera, makers of the Opera Web Browser have filed an antitrust compaint with the EU against Microsoft complaining about Internet Explorer. As many know, every Windows installation comes with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE6 with XP and IE7 with Vista). Opera is complaining that by bundling IE with Windows, Microsoft is hindering the ability for consumers to choose what browser to use. At the very least, Opera wants Microsoft to include other browsers into Windows. Opera also complains about Internet Explorer's lack of following standards causes undue hardship for web development.

Asking the EU to pressure Microsoft to unbundle IE from Windows does not come without precedent. The EU has already forced Microsoft to provide a version of Windows that does not include Windows Media Player. The version was called Windows XP Edition N. Despite the antitrust ruling and the release of Edition N, it didn't really sell well as the version of XP with WMP was the same price. Technically, taking Windows Media Player out of Windows is seemingly simpler than taking IE off. IE is tied in closely with XP as many applications within Windows seem to use it as well. Windows, Microsoft, and Office Update all require Internet Explorer to function, so unbundling IE from Windows seems to be trickier than simply removing it from the install. So that would pretty much leave installing alternative browsers with XP. For those tech-savvy enough, that might work, but I'm sure if Microsoft does that, then they will probably make IE the default browser which would probably mean the non-tech people probably won't realize the difference and only use the default browser, which in this case would be IE.

Opera's second complaint though is definitely a valid one. If anyone has done any real web development, they probably know how difficult making a website look the same across the browsers can be. While Safari, Firefox, and Opera tend to be pretty easy, Internet Explorer really becomes hardball. I can say from personal experience that making my website show up properly across the browsers tended to be a headache.  I remember the first version of my site, it looked fine in all but IE. Forcing Microsoft to follow the web standards would be a good idea, but sadly, I don't see it happening anytime soon which sucks.

In the end, I don't know how much Opera and the EU are going to be able to accomplish.  I want to see them succeed, but the reality of the situation is much more complicated than it should have to be.

Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU [opera.com]

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