Vista launch delay threat by Symantec and Adobe objections

Stan Beer
Friday, 22 September 2006 06:48

Your IT - Home IT

Objections to the European Commission about bundled features in Vista from security vendor Symantec and electronic documents vendor Adobe threaten to delay the release of Vista until the second quarter of 2007.

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As outlined in a Wall Street Journal report, Symantec has lodged an antitrust complaint about Microsoft including in Windows bundled security features that lock out third party providers while Adobe is challenging the free inclusion in Vista of Microsoft's own electronic document creation and reading software.

The security issue is a tough one for the EU regulator.

On the one hand, Microsoft has promised for years to make its operating system more secure and integrating features such as Patchguard, which prevents malware for modifying system files, is one of the ways Vista tackles the problem.

On the other hand, Patchguard will also prevent access to the Vista system kernel by other security vendors so they can't develop competing security products.