Microsoft unshackles the desktop

By Anand Parthasarathy

KOCHI, JULY 12. Microsoft announced today that the next edition of its PC Operating System (OS) ``Windows XP'', due on October 25, will allow computer assemblers as well as end users, to discard its Net browser, ``Internet Explorer'', if they so choose.

The move comes barely two weeks after a U.S. Appeals Court reversed a lower court order to split the company, but concurred generally with findings of Microsoft's monopolistic moves on the desktop market. It will now be possible for manufacturers to offer their customers a choice of browsers - either Microsoft's Explorer or something like Netscape, its hot rival. Assemblers or users can now go to the Windows ``Add/Remove'' utility and consign Explorer to the ``recycle bin''- something not currently possible, because the company had glued browser and OS firmly together.

PC makers can now also include ready-made icons that will allow the users to opt for music players like ``RealPlayer'' or movie players like ``Apple Quicktime'' in preference to the current default, Microsoft's ``Windows Media Player''.

This loosening up - albeit marginal - of Microsoft's grip on the desktop environment, is seen as a pre-emptive move: lest the U.S. courts feel inclined to place restrictions on the release of Windows XP, 15 weeks from now. But it is not quite a case of ``which guy blinked first'': analysts say, Microsoft has already taken 87 per cent of the browser market; so its present concession is no big deal.

Opportunity for India

However, the unshackling of the desktop presents the homegrown PC business (nearly 55 percent of the 1.5 million PCs sold in India are unbranded, locally-assembled models) a unique opportunity for cutting away the ``Wintel'' - Windows desktop and Intel chip - umbilical, and giving Indian customers an aggressively priced ``Open System'' platform. Clone chips from AMD and Cyrix have generally been cheaper than the processor lineup from market leader Intel. And a ``free'' operating system like Linux coupled with a free office suite like Sun's ``Star Office'' could slash software costs by about Rs. 20,000.

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Section  : National
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