Who You Gonna Call? Trustbusters!

I downloaded Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Professional from the Microsoft Developer Network Website late last night, and I will upgrade to both products today. Their availability to developers--less than two weeks before the official business launch--is essential for partners getting out applications updates or customers beginning serious deployment testing.

Code availability has meaning to Microsoft competitors, too, some of which until this product release cycle were considered coveted partners. My prediction: Those competitors aren't done complaining to European regulators about either product. Their clamoring will continue and maybe even increase ahead of Windows Vista's consumer launch in January.

One immediate issue: The "N" versions of Windows Vista. As mandated by the adverse European antitrust ruling, Microsoft must make available on the continent separate Windows versions (Home and Professional for XP) without the bundled media player. For Windows Vista there are N versions of Home Basic and Business. As Windows Vista Business is comparable to Windows XP Professional--and a little more because of Tablet functionality--the N version makes sense.

I wouldn't consider Windows Vista Home Basic, what I affectionately Windows Basic, comparable to XP Home. Windows XP Home and Pro are functionally equivalent, short of some advanced networking and security capabilities. Otherwise, feature for feature, the two major XP versions are identical. By contrast, Windows Basic lacks many features available in Windows Vista versions other than Starter, such as the Aero user interface and advanced search, among other benefits. Some competitors might take a similiar view and raise more ruckus with the EU, which this week scolded Microsoft, again, for failing to fully comply with the antitrust remedy.

Microsoft's position is most tenuous right before a new operating system ships, particularly in this era of trustbuster oversight. Months before Microsoft launched Windows XP, Kodak complained to New York's attorney general about new, bundled photo features. At the time, Microsoft was under intense scrutiny by the US Justice Department. Microsoft relented on the photo features, allowing Kodak's own software as a default option. During the time leading up to Windows Vista's launch, Microsoft made other concessions--some of them preemptive--such as ceding control of desktop icons.

Like XP, competitors have targeted Windows Vista. About seven months ago, Google cried foul to the Justice Department about Internet Explorer 7 search defaults. US trustbusters found no real fault in Microsoft's approach, nor should they have. IE 7 search is functionally equivalent to Firefox, and OEMs ultimately will choose defaults on the PCs they ship. For Dell, at least, default will be Google. Nevertheless, Microsoft changed the feature, after Google also complained to European regulators.

Microsoft agreed to other changes, mostly around security, in response to complaints made in Europe by former security partners McAfee and Symantec. The most controversial, and perhaps most important, has to do with PatchGuard, which is supposed to prevent access to the kernel by hackers and security software. Microsoft is supposed to document some information for PatchGuard--but not access to the kernel--with next year's release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. While security vendors may have missed the release window for blocking Vista, they can still go after the service pack.

By the way, Microsoft's nomenclature works against its new kernel feature and for complaining competitors. Connotations for PatchGuard are all about protecting something from being patched. The other name, Kernel Patch Protection, is the same.

There is yet one area of possible contention remaining--and it's one about which competitors can still make quite the stink: Windows Vista Welcome Center. The new feature hawks Microsoft services like the dickens. Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 puts--count `em--six icons for accessing or downloading Microsoft products or services: Windows Live, Windows Live Toolbar, Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Mail Desktop and Windows Live Messenger. One could argue the placement, which is highly prominent, negates desktop icon concessions Microsoft made before Windows XP shipped.

PC manufacturers aren't scheduled to ship Windows Vista on new computers for another two months. Competitors have plenty of time to lobby European (or even US) trustbusters about Welcome Center icons. Surely,competitors will lobby PC manufacturers, at the least. PC makers can put in icons for other services and quite likely take a bounty for placement, too; Microsoft would get there for free. I'm trying confirm (again) whether or not partners can remove Microsoft's icons.