Microsoft, OD2 Start European Music Service

useosx writes "Reuters is reporting that 'Microsoft Corp. announced on Thursday a pact with Europe's biggest digital music outfit, OD2, to form the continent's first major a la carte online download service. ... The move marks the first time European consumers can purchase song downloads off the Internet for under one euro ($1.13), and without requiring a monthly subscription, bringing the fee in line with the popular Apple Computer iTunes service, which is not yet available in Europe.'" Other stories: the Guardian, BBC.

Comments

Re:I hate to say it..

[sporty]

Big difference compared to apple is, the support and qa needed to manage such a beast. The only reason that say, Linux or FreeBSD doesn't work as well as OSX on a Mac, is because the Mac architecture is closer to homogenous.

Granetd, Linux more than FreeBSD has better hardware support, there are fewer macs that will run OS X and fewer taht will run OS X. When there is a rift, it's usually pretty big. I can't say the newest of G5's will run OS9 and I certainly know ALL G3's can't run OS X.

But I can name more hardware configurations that won't run Linux than Mac's running OS X or 9.

Having said that... MS's service has one failing point.. there is so much hardware out there to test under, and for users to fail under, that the ease-of-use factor is harder to accomplish. I'd hate to be the one user who gets the service, get the player, buy the song, but can't play it in one way or another.