ProComp Says Windows XP SP1 Not In Compliance With Consent Decree

Microsoft

On Wednesday, Washington-based ProComp (Project To Promote Competition and Innovation In The Digital Age) sent a letter to the Department of Justice and New York Attorney General's Office claiming that Windows XP Service Pack 1--which was publicly released last week--is rife with efforts to bypass the spirit and intent of Microsoft's antitrust consent decree with the Department of Justice, signed last fall.

The letter was sent to Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Charles James and New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. It claims that Microsoft designed and built the service pack to be so bulky (30 Mbytes) that most consumers won't download it, and if they want to get the CD from Microsoft, they have to pay a $10 fee. The Windows XP SP1 violates many aspects of the distribution portion of the consent decree, ProComp charges.

"Microsoft optimistically informs users that this download can be completed in 1.25 hours. It is beyond ridiculous that the software which purportedly remedies the violation is not offered separately in a way that guarantees that the product will be immediately accessed," the letter states. "For consumers that do not want to download the 30-megabyte file, they are offered the opportunity to purchase a CD," according to the letter. "This is simply outrageous. They would not purport to come into compliance with the law by charging consumers for the privilege of using a legal product, conceivably yielding Microsoft tens of millions [of dollars in new revenues. "

The Department of Justice said it had received the letter and was reviewing it, according to Dana Perino, DOJ spokeswoman.

"We had a beta process for SP1 where we sought and received input and

feedback from industry and government. It's unfortunate but hardly

surprising that this special interest group chose to play politics

rather than participate in this process," said a spokesman for Microsoft, who disputed several of proComp's claims.

The spokesman noted that the 410 fee is common for all service packs, including Windows XP SP1 which also offer additional features, and that OEMs did not indicate to Microsoft that it was too complex to use.

"We are fully committed to implementing the settlement agreement and will

work closely with government and industry to ensure its success," he said.

Desler added that a number of OEMs have informed Microsoft that they intends to use the new OEM configuration options to create custom Windows XP desktops.

The ProComp letter also claims the Windows XP service pack has proven too complex for OEMs to deploy easily, and for this reason, nearly all OEMs have announced that they have no intention of including SP1 with their PCs. And "ironically" the letter notes, the service pack 1 is available via Windows Update and requires Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher for download. "In a settlement that requires Microsoft to offer consumers choice in web browsers ... users of Netscape browser are informed that they must use Internet Explorer version 5.0 or greater."

ProComp also claims that the "Set Program Access and Default" option is largely inaccessible and non-intuitive to end users and no help is provided. "The most obvious question is whether consumers will even navigate to the utility in the first instance, given the nomenclature Microsoft chose for the utility," the letter states. "Moreover, [the option does not identify alternative [Internet middleware installed on a machine. "

The letter also states that there is essentially no end-user access to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

All tolled, "SP1 for Windows XP is not, in our view, in compliance. Service Pack 3 for Windows 2000 is even less compliant," the letter claimed. Both service packs shipped as a result of the proposed consent decree. Windows 2000 SP3 shipped in August. Windows XP shipped on Sept. 9.

"We believe that Microsoft's purported compliance with the terms of the settlement is hopelessly inadequate and misleading, and will not help the Department of Justice achieve its stated settlement objective to stop Microsoft's anticompetitive practice," according to a prepared statement issued by Mike Pettit, president of ProComp.