Microsoft gives in and reveals its codes.

The fine still remains.

Brussels - After a long juristic fight, Microsoft finally goes down on its knees, for the requirement of the European Commission, to make the Windows operating system more accessible to other software developers.

This “victory for the consumers” was announced yesterday by the Dutch European commissioner Neelie Kroes. “As of today Microsoft will comply to our demands. The positive impact of this, will be noticeable in the next following years,” according to Kroes.

The European Commission had fined Microsoft 497 Million euro in 2004, because they restricted the Windows system to other software developers, and because of the cross-belt sale of windows media player. Because of the restrictions, software developers have problems to get software running on Windows, or they have to pay large amounts of money to obtain rights to view the specific Windows code.

Microsoft refused to give in, and after two years, the fine was raised with another 280 million euro. Again Microsoft, which had the support of US government, appealed to this fines, but was proven wrong a few weeks ago by the European Court of Justice.

Kroes also mentioned that she has been discussing this issue for several weeks with Steve Ballmer, top man of Microsoft. Last week she finally got an agreement with Ballmer. Microsoft will not appeal to the fine, and will reduce the patent rights to a range of software products.They also want to give software developers an easier entrance to the windows code.

the euro-commissioner also said that Microsoft still has to pay the fine. According to Kroes, Microsoft can make no more abuse of its dominant position on the market for operating systems for computers, which it masters for 95%, and also the high profit forks will be limited. The consumer will profit of this in the near future.

Euro Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

[tags] Microsoft, vista, windows, european commision, european court, neelie kroes, fine[/tags]