In its latest step to comply with its still-pending federal antitrust
settlement, Microsoft Monday readied the release of
Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), which will give computer makers and
consumers the ability to avoid five key Microsoft middleware programs.
SP1 is designed to answer the charges that Microsoft unfairly favors its
programs over those from rivals. The service pack will give computer makers
and consumers the ability to avoid Microsoft five middleware programs:
Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, and
Microsoft’s Java Virtual Machine. For example, it will include on Windows a
new start menu button called “set program access and defaults” that allows
users four choices: computer-maker’s settings; Microsoft only; non-Microsoft
only; and customized. The default choice is customized.
Microsoft released
a similar service pack for Windows 2000 in early August. SP1 will be
available for free on the Web or for $9.95 on CD.
The release of SP1, announced in
late May and released in
beta in June, follows up on Microsoft’s disclosure
last month of 272 application protocol interfaces.
Both moves, in addition to a program for licensing 113
Windows communication protocols begun earlier this summer, were required
in Microsoft’s antitrust settlement last fall with the Justice Department
and most of the states suing the company. The settlement is pending, while
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decides an antitrust case
pursued by nine states that rejected the settlement as too lenient. Her
ruling is expected sometime this fall.
The service pack could prove a boost to computer makers and users frustrated
by Microsoft’s stranglehold on the desktop through its ubiquitous Windows
operating system. The new options could help computer manufacturers, who can
now choose third-party middleware, as well as rival manufacturers of
Microsoft products like AOL Time Warner and RealNetworks.
In addition to the mandated middleware changes, SP1 includes patches for
hundreds of bugs found since XP was released in October 2001. Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates has pushed the company to be more conscientious of
security flaws as part of the “Trustworthy Computing Initiative” he began in
January.
The most high-profile result of the push was the announcement early this
summer of Palladium, Microsoft’s far-reaching
effort to secure computers that critics have painted as another
Microsoft plot to control computer users’ choices.
Despite the Gates decree, Microsoft’s products have continued to be dogged
by security flaws. Just last Thursday, Microsoft released critical patches
for flaws in most of its Windows platforms that can leave the systems
susceptible to identity spoofing. Meanwhile, a security advisory firm today
issued
its tenth security warning for a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer browser.
Microsoft’s moves to comply with the still-pending settlement could be
washed away in Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling. The states still suing
Microsoft want more widespread remedies, including Microsoft publishing its
entire Windows source code. Microsoft has refused to consider a compromise
that goes further than its settlement with the Justice Department.
