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MS Putting the Squeeze on Alternative Audio

Posted by timothy on from the presumption-gumption dept.

renard writes: "Some interesting developments during the last two days of the Microsoft antitrust trial, as reported by AP: MS Executive Linda Averett has admitted that Internet Explorer trumps user preferences for audio playback, and explains away a failure of IE6 searches to find RealAudio sites as a "mistake by the search team." My personal favorite: an MS-internal email exchange where one employee suggests that everyone "Remember the 'embrace and extend' campaigns we've used in the past," and an MS executive admonishes that "We need to keep all of this off the airwaves." See also related stories at Yahoo, CNN, and the NYT."

2 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. How to shut up QuickTime's upgrade reminders by cpeterso · · Score: 5, Informative

    QT asks me every damn time I look at something if I want to buy it.

    1. Set your system time many years ahead (like 2010)
    2. Run QuickTime
    3. When it asks you if you would like to upgrade, say no (of course!)
    4. QuickTime will then write some secret registry key to remember when it should next remind you to upgrade. Fortunately, your next reminder is now scheduled for the year 2010! ;-)
    5. Be sure to set your system time back!

    --
    cpeterso
  2. Re:Why this fixation on Modular Windows? by blakestah · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...make them take out the ability to download files, or listen to music out of the box???

    No, that is not what the proposal is about. The proposal identifies 9 key areas - browser, email client, and media player are three of them. For each key area, the Microsoft user tool must be removable and replaceable by an OEM without penalty. So, essentially, the OEM buys the stripped Windows and some subset of the 9 components from Microsoft, and gets the other components from other vendors. The OEM is free to configure Windows however it sees fit with respect to the 9 key areas.

    Microsoft is NOT forced to ship an operating system that cannot download files. This responsibility has merely shifted to the OEM to configure these 9 tools.

    Also, all the Microsoft add-ons must be priced at a pro-rated value relative to the stripped down Windows. That means the OEMs pay for Windows, and pay separately for each add-on based on value added.

    With this proposal, and full disclosure of relevant APIs for each of the 9 key areas, competition for userspace tools would be restored to these key markets. Microsoft's leveraging power would be stripped, and its software could only compete on its own merits.