Talk About Ridiculous…

So it looks like the EU is trying to pick Microsoft’s pocket again.  The EU is up in fits about Microsoft’s inclusion of security features such as Windows Firewall and warns Microsoft that inclusion of such features would bring further fines against it in the future.

Regarding the new security features in Vista, Jonathon Todd, an EU spokesman said:

“Less diversity and innovation would ultimately harm consumers through
reduced choice and higher security risks.”

What?  Wait, so having an OS that’s, by default, not secured at all, somehow helps consumers?  It’s entirely contradictory and the EU has lost all credibility with this move.  The inclusion of default security measures is a gesture to help improve the user experience and make sure that users aren’t exposed.  If such features were not included, users would likely not even be aware of the need for security related software until it’s too late.

It’s not as if Microsoft is blocking others from installing security related software on Vista, it’s simply providing some simple functionality out of the box so that there is always protection available to the consumer, whether he or she is aware of the need for such software.

And I’m sure if Microsoft didn’t include default security software, the EU would have a different stance and claim Microsoft wasn’t protecting consumers by providing a stop-gap solution until third party security solutions were installed.

What a debacle…