bananas Usually, I ignore the battles between the European Commission (EC) and Microsoft because I can’t take this struggle for “more competition” seriously anymore. But the latest developments are just too bizarre, so I can’t resist sharing my opinion.

You’ve probably heard that the EC believes that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows 7 is against European law. I don’t know this law, and I am not really interested in it. However, if it is really true that it is against the law for a company to decide what kind of features a software product can have, then there is obviously something wrong with this law. To escape insane fines, Microsoft has decided to ship Windows 7 in Europe without Internet Explorer. Manufacturers and customers will have the option to install Internet Explorer. All Windows 7 editions sold in the European Union will have an “E” at the end of the product name.

What I like about this decision is that this way Microsoft signals the world that “E” which obviously stands for “Europe” is some kind of handicap at least as far as Windows is concerned. As a matter of fact, Windows without a browser will just mean more hassle for European customers and not more competition. Of course, most Windows 7 buyers wouldn’t be affected, because PC manufacturers will just install Internet Explorer anyway. However, those who upgrade from Windows XP or Vista will learn that being a European customer has some disadvantages. It will, however, be possible to download Internet Explorer through FTP, so those customers won’t be completely lost.

I can imagine how the European bureaucrats must have been seething with rage when they learned about Microsoft’s plan. They have already signaled that they might not accept it. What they really want is to enable Microsoft’s customers to choose during the Windows 7 setup which browser to install.

Even though my opinion of the EC was never high (despite the fact that I am pro-European Union), I never thought that they would come up with such a bizarre idea. Imagine if BMW were forced to offer its customers the choice to deliver their cars with a Chrysler engine just to make sure that there is enough competition. You say this isn’t comparable because BMW doesn’t have a monopoly? Okay, then how about this one: Why not force Google to place a Bing search box on their homepage?

I don’t know whether BMW would decide to deliver their cars without engines. But Google’s homepage without a search box would certainly look a bit strange. I think, the reactions to Microsoft’s decision to remove IE from Windows 7 demonstrates that nowadays a web browser is an integral part of an operating system. Without a browser, an operating system is more or less useless. It doesn’t really matter if it is technically possible to remove IE from Windows. As a matter of fact, it is practically impossible.

And, of course, forcing a company to distribute its competitors products is bananas. It would just be another absurd decision in the long list of bureaucratic regulations for which the guys in Brussels are so famous. If the EC is really pushing this through, then it is only a matter of time until other software vendors will fall in line to take legal action for the enforcement of the right to include their products in Windows as well. This is not just about Internet Explorer and Media Player. This is also about anti-malware tools, personal firewalls, backup software, file explorers, file archivers, CD burning, etc. Perhaps this is what the EC really wants. This would allow them to shuffle more bureaucrats to Brussels, who can then create new regulations to resolve all of these disputes.

So what can Microsoft do? I think they have two options. They could simply refuse to sell Windows 7 in the EU. They could offer it as a download from US servers for private customers and European manufacturers. This way quite a few taxes that would otherwise been paid in the EU will stay in the US. Rest assured that some European governments would pull the EC up short immediately. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Microsoft has the guts to make this decision.

The other option would be to deliver Windows 7 with a stripped-down version of Internet Explorer, a Notepad-like web browser, if you will. This would enable but also essentially force users to download another web browser. Perhaps Firefox would gain popularity this way, but I doubt that the same could be said about the EC.

Whatever the outcome of the EC’s war against Microsoft will be, one things is for sure: the civilians, i.e. the customers, will have to suffer the most. Competition cannot and does not have to be decreed by law. Even though the Norwegian browser maker Opera doesn’t like to hear it, Firefox has proven that no government intervention is necessary to “regulate” the browser market. This war, like most wars, is just about nothing.

By the way, I wonder why nobody has ever wondered why Microsoft wasn’t able to use their desktop and browser monopoly to prevent Google from gaining their monopoly in the search market. Obviously, customers are not as dull as the EC wants us to believe. They’re able to choose the best product on their own, without the help of clueless politicians.