Microsoft denies abusing its market position, claims IE supports a "wide range of Web standards" and says it has no intention of unbundling IE and Windows.
Opera, based in Norway, last week filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by bundling IE with the Windows operating system.
Bundling IE with Windows means people have no choice in receiving it and only afterward have the option of deleting it or using an alternative product as the default browser, Opera said.
Opera also claimed that Microsoft is hindering interoperability by not following accepted open Web standards.
Microsoft struck back on Friday, indicating that it would not willingly unbundle IE from Windows.
"We believe the inclusion of the (IE) browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers are already free to choose to use any browsers they wish," a Microsoft representative said. "Internet Explorer has been an integral part of the Windows operating system for over a decade and supports a wide range of Web standards."
The Microsoft representative added that "computer users have complete freedom of choice to use and set as default any browser they wish, including Opera, and PC manufacturers can also preinstall any browser as the default on any Windows machine they sell."
Opera filed the complaint against Microsoft last week, asserting that Microsoft has locked consumers into using IE, which has "only recently begun to offer some of the innovative features that other browsers have offered for years," such as tabbed browsing.
"We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them," said Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive officer of Opera. "In addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, we are a champion of open Web standards and cross-platform innovation."
Opera asked the European Commission to force Microsoft to unbundle IE from Windows and to carry alternative browsers preinstalled on the desktop. Opera also asked the EC to require Microsoft to follow "fundamental and open Web standards accepted by Web-authoring communities."
The browser company asserts that Microsoft's "unilateral control over standards in some markets has created a de facto standard that is more costly to support, harder to maintain, and technologically inferior and that can even expose users to security risks."
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
Maybe Microsoft should also remove Paint, notepad, wordpad, calculator, outlook express, Windows media player and remote desktop. After all, there are third parties who develop products which do the same things as these.
It would be like asking BMW not to include seats in it's cars because there are third party seat manufacturers capable of providing seats.