Microsoft Corp’s decision to play hardball with Department of Justice has blown up in its face. In what amounts to a public relations black eye, the software giant said yesterday it reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to offer a fully operational OEM version Windows 95 without, for all intents and purposes, the Internet Explorer browser. The surprise settlement, reached on Wednesday, was read out Thursday at a scheduled hearing on the DoJ’s continuing anti-trust case against Microsoft. It resolves the DoJ’s charge that Microsoft violated US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s December 11 preliminary injunction by offering computer companies versions of Windows 3.0 or 4.0 without Internet Explorer that were either out of date or would not work. In reaching the settlement Microsoft escaped a $1m-a-day fine the DoJ had asked to be imposed if Microsoft were to be found in contempt. The wider investigation into whether Microsoft violated terms of an 1995 anti-trust consent decree – which forbids it from forcing companies which license Windows to also use other Microsoft programs – continues. The settlement also does not affect Microsoft’s petition against the referral of the case to a special government-appointed advisor, Professor Lawrence Lessig. Microsoft has an appeal set for April 21 at which the settlement could be overturned.
Shelling out
Microsoft says that in addition to the integrated Windows 95 with IE product, it will continue to offer to ISVs that it will also make available two OEM versions of Windows 95 from which IE is either part-removed or hidden from the user. However, as there will be no difference in price between the fully-integrated and browserless versions, it’s hard to see the OEMs shelling out the same money for a product with less functionality. Specifically, Microsoft is making available the OSR OEM Service Release 2.0 of Windows 95 with IE 3 or 4 but modified as if Windows’ add/remove utility had been run on it, thereby disabling IE. A second version, which Microsoft suggests will be more robust, effectively leaves all IE code in place but hides it from the user. The IE icon is removed from the desktop, IE is removed from the program list and the key iexplorer.exe file is hidden from the shell. The same configurations are also available for the latest, less bug- ridden release of Windows 95 with IE 4.0 bundled (OSR 2.5). Microsoft says it can’t cut all IE code from Windows 95 without making it useless. If the settlement is overturned on April 21, users will be able to keep their versions of Windows without IE for up to 90 days or until the license period expires. OSR 2.5 is the last Windows 95 release. How the settlement will affect Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 98 release, in which the browser metaphor is used throughout the system, isn’t known.
