Well... it's their service. And you're not paying for it. Seems to me they can offer it any way they want.
I don't know if it's a good move on their part, that's a different question.
I don't know if it's a good move on their part, that's a different question.
Bing Maps does exist.
However, I think that a big box with notice about unsupported browser and trying about own risk would help more that redirect.
Please. Wake up and smell the coffee.
EVERY major software company has avoided the Linux market. It's because of the questionable market opportunity that is the reason not any competition issues.
More tellingly: Linux's overarching success has been in the server space (and the platform is emerging as the mobile leader). Microsoft's server software, including most notably SQL Server (derived from Sybase, originally targeted at Unix systems) isn't available for Linux. Neither are Exchange, Active Directory, Sharepoint, IIS, or Windows File Sharing. Free Software (and proprietary) alternatives and work-alikes for each exist, and in many or most cases are more successful, though AD remains a market leader.
Microsoft conquered the desktop PC market by leveraging compulsory per-CPU OS license via bundled office software to create a self-reinforcing illegal monopoly, which it then attempted to extend into the small server space. It's fought every attempt to crack any part of that stranglehold, fighting OEMs providing other operating systems (DR DOS, Novell, BeOS, Linux), by not porting its Office products (except to Mac OS X, since discontinued), and by not porting/building its server products to other platforms.
Major companies which have not avoided the Linux market include IBM, Oracle (and acquired companies Sun and PeopleWare), and Informix. Yes, all server space. I'm making a point here.
If anything Google's abuse of FRAND patents against Microsoft over the XBox 360 H.264 codec is the most egregious example of aggressive behaviour.
I fail to see how this is different than e.g. not supporting Flash on iOS devices due to poor performance and battery drain - a then-controversial move which is now seen as reasonable even outside the circles of Apple fans.
It doesn't so much work that way for Google in 2013. They must be above reproach. Using their dominant leverage in one business to fiddle with competition in another would invite much unwanted government scrutiny – however chuckle-worthy the irony might be, with Microsoft now the aggrieved party.
They don't have an obligation to support tiny platforms that would cost more to support than they're worth just because Microsoft is very loud to complain about anything they do. Or subject users to a crashy experience because the site doesn't need Webkit to load but still needs it to not crash. Any more than Microsoft has to make officeupdate.microsoft.com support Firefox on Mac rather than just redirecting it to office.com like they do now.
Anything that still uses Active X is IE-only. It has been slowly dying, but it most certainly still exists, and for many years (even fairly recently) Microsoft was one of the major perpetrators. And Silverlight is almost as bad (but thankfully much less widely used). Half of Apple's web services only work or work fully with Apple's operating systems. There is no Mac OS X support on Amazon EC2 (you can certainly blame Apple for that more than Amazon, but then you're just blaming Apple instead of Amazon). I'm sure you're aware of the kerfuffle over Microsoft shoving proprietary "do it like this version of Microsoft Office" specs into the OOXML standard over strenuous objections by competitors. Almost all of Microsoft's server products rely on Active Directory for feature completeness and don't play half as well with non-Microsoft implementations of LDAP or Kerberos.
If competitors had an obligation to support competing platforms then you could find no saints in this industry.
Edit: Incidentally, I'm really enjoying the irony of you loudly and repeatedly complaining about people downvoting pro-Microsoft content (notwithstanding that this story has remained on the front page for almost a full day) while your brethren simultaneously downvote my comments instead of responding to them.
I'm very saddened by the results of the antitrust motion and I hope they get cornered again on antitrust issues. Google and Apple are the new MS, really.