Operating System Choice

This blog is a response to the ongoing monopoly of Microsoft operating systems on personal computers sold in the UK and the EU. If you want to buy a computer made by anyone other than Apple this afternoon in a high street store you will have to buy a Microsoft operating system as part of the deal. If you choose Apple you are obliged to have their operating system, and you can't licence Apple's operating system OSX for use on a non-Apple computer.

There is no choice.

When you start up a non-Apple computer for the first time you will have to accept two licence agreements, the first is from Microsoft and covers the use of the Windows(tm) operating system. The second is from the PC manufacturer.

I would like to see this first screen replaced with an Operating System Choice screen, where the owner of the computer is given a choice of operating systems or as a minimum the option to proceed without installing a Microsoft Operating System.

There is a precedent for this approach - the Browser Choice system - where users of Microsoft Windows who are using the default bundled web browser Internet Explorer are given a choice of other browsers to install. This came about when the EU ruled that Microsoft was abusing its dominance in retail PC operating systems to distort the market for browser software.

We are now faced with the next logical step - addressing the market dominance in PC operating systems that gave Microsoft the platform to promote Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player to the detriment of consumers and competitors.