According to the WSJ.com (subscription required), Bill Gates said European antitrust regulation has not changed the “key features” of Vista, though he did have some choice words to say about rival software makers. After mentioning improved performance and security features as Vista’s flagship innovations, Gates accused certain competitors of purposefully getting
involved with antitrust authorities to “castrate” Vista. No doubt he was referring to earlier complaints from security software giants Symantec and McAfee. Both companies have been claiming that Vista will limit their software’s functionality.
Gates claims that Microsoft has cooperated with antitrust regulators “every step of
the way.” But the Microsoft strategy of integrating more software into its core operating system has been met with antitrust problems in the past. In 2004, the EU fined Microsoft a record $634.4 million due in part to a media player built into Windows.
But back to the current issue of integrated security software… According to Gates, “No [antitrust regulators] insisted security features
come out of Vista,” he continued by stating that “…the idea
that we should make Windows better is a pretty pro-consumer idea.”
