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E.U. Commission: More Antitrust Trouble For MS
Tidal Flame writes "According to Wired news, Microsoft appears to be in hot water over antitrust issues again. The European Commission says it will require Microsoft to 'share more proprietary information with its rivals' and 'uncouple' it's Media Player audiovisual software from the Windows operating system." iCoach points to this article at The Register covering the same.
Go EU!
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Information wants...you to shut your pie hole.
first, im not going to make any cheesy remarks like "well, i really hate microsoft too but lets look at their side for a minute". although, in saying that, i in essence already have.
ok why is it ok to tell a company who doesnt force you to use its software (yeah, the average joe can go out and buy a barebones system and install linux... if they dont want to do that, its on them.) what they are allowed to put into software that they (yeah, mostly - lets put aside the bs about how they stole such-and-such code) wrote.
whats the matter? as soon as they start making too much money someone else has a problem? if they're such a problem dont encourage the public to buy it and (if your an oem) have a little diversity... dispite the fact that most linux users hate redhat, it IS pretty decent for the average joe... no one forces you to buy from an oem that uses microsoft and if it hurts your business to exclude microsoft - dont hate them, the player - hate the game. after all, its your elected government that referee's it.
i really wish companies would stop bitching for once and just move on. if you dont like windows media player - write a fucking better one. if you cant, look on the internet - for surely someone already has... for god sakes - really, if you dont like the fact that microsoft puts uninstallable stuff into a program that YOU choose to use, DONT USE IT... i mean,, what the fuck would happen if microsoft took away the add/remove wizard? would everyone bitch because they couldnt offically add or remove software?
fuck that, this rants done.. im gettnig more angry just writing it.
I'm sorry, but who the hell modded this "insightful"? Are you implying that all businesses should employ GPL or BSD style licenses? That's just stupidity piled on top of ignorance. Yes, I think Microsoft engages in shady business practices, and YES, I think they have a monopoly. I even think that they shouldn't bundle IE in with their OS. But to think that they should have to move to GPL instead of proprietary code is ludicrous.
They should release SOME source code, so that improvements can be made, but come on, they ARE a business. It doesn't matter if they have a thousand or a billion dollars, they're in it for the money. I'm defending Microsoft's right to make money, NOT the manner in which they do it. There's a difference and it's important. Your analogy is flawed: telling a thief to "steal less"? This is more like telling the thief to "stop stealing".
While you may think that if every business utilized some utopian GPL license, we'd all be happy, software would be perfect because it would be open source, and the code would be free, and wouldn't that be just peachy, those of us in a little-known called reality know better. What you're advocating is a pipe dream. Great on paper, but utterly useless in the real world.
Congratulations, BTW. Your mindless, drone-like, Microsoft-bashing has caused me to defend them in some small way, something I never thought I'd do. Way to go.
I don't wish to offend Europeans (NOT a troll), but this E.U commision is a whole pile of shit..
1) That damn U.K Government is the only thing relevant between Europe and the rest of the world
2) When will they learn. M$ ain't going to change it's product (Windoze) to accomodate the legal problems of one Continent. If they need to stay there, they might end up selling off their European subsidiaries to reliable and trusted (read: No Linux) companies and give them the license to sell Microsoft products, therefore making it impossible for Microsoft to be lawsuit'ed in Europe directly.