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Microsoft Agrees to Stop Hijacking Music-Shopping
ScottSpeaks! writes "CNN , ABC, and others are reporting that Microsoft has agreed to fix Windows XP so that it no longer launches IE (instead of the user's chosen default browser) when the user selects the "Shop for Music Online" option in Windows XP. MS isn't admitting that it's a violation of the consent decree they signed to get the DoJ to drop the anti-trust suit against them, but threats to take them to court over it are what prompted the move."
Since when is it Microsoft's policy to implement changes without an actual lawsuit? Granted this is probably nothing more than a registry change, but does this signal a new non-court driven Microsoft? I tend to think not. In this case, they probably calculated that it would be cheaper to change the link than to spend years in court feeding their legal team.
today is spelling optional day.
Does it say anywhere how MS was preventing these programs from honoring the default browser setting?
SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
Some recent versions of MSN messenger used to do this as well. The latest version I've downloaded uses my default browser.
[alk]
If I receive a non-HTML/RTF formatted e-mail that contains a URL, Outlook will convert it to a link and when clicked it launches IE rather than my preferred browser.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Annoys the hell out of me.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I use XP Pro at home (Your condolences are not necessary) Mozilla Firebird is my default browser. I despise IE. The only time I see IE launch is when I do windows update. I wonder if there's any way microsoft could be convinced to program Windows update in a way that it could be accessed by other (standards compliant) browsers.
Conserve Oil, Recycle, Boycott Walmart
What about when the user selects a 3rd party browser as their default, disables IE and does this:
Start > Run > type in "http://SLASHDOT.ORG"
Doesn't IE still show up ?
That should be fixed also...
it's a bit odd that they have a specific button in XP that says *Shop Online for Music*?
Granted they've now allowed folks to browse their music retailing partners web site in a different browser.
But I wonder what business deal has been done with the music retailer(s) so they can have a ready made market of Windows XP users sent direct to their door(s).
Worst
Considering...
"Windows is about choice, you can mix and match all of this stuff," David Fester, general manager of Microsoft's Windows digital media division, told the New York Times. "We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services."
The funny thing is that is not the only MS software that forces IE on you. There are others (especially in VS .NET).
And while I'm on the topic of IE being foisted upon me...
The only Web site that I have problems browsing is microsoft.com. Well, that and MSNBC.com. So much relies on IE. Why are MS coders in such a manic rush to make themselves look so stupid? "Uh, we only know how to write code for IE." I can view multimedia content at every news site except MSNBC, which requires IE and related crap.
OK. Yes. I know why they do it. But, my god. Pick some other way to annoy people in to using your products. That, or actually release a browser that is as good as Firebird. Firebird is in freaking Alpha and it's better than a 10 year old IE. Innovation my ass.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
No one is forcing you.
Yes, actually, your hand is being forced. That's kind of what a monopoly is about. Good or bad, you don't really have anywhere else to turn.
Let me emphasize:
Microsoft is found to have a monopoly on desktop i386 operating systems.
You can disagree with that all you want (as your post implicitly does) but that is the fact on the table. Link to an i386 desktop vender with more than 3% of the commodity market who will sell you a computer without Windows preinstalled. If you can't, that means you don't have a choice in whether or not to BUY -- pay for -- Microsoft's license. You buy it or you don't buy a reliable computer.
First of all I don't like MS's approach to software development (particularly the activation garbage you have to go through now) but I don't see that anyone has a right to force MS to stop using IE (yeah they technically weren't forced but the lawsuit threat initiated their response). Take Apple for example - practically everthing on a Mac is proprietary Apple software and you don't see the Mac people going ballistic over it. Forcing MS to make changes to their OS for anything other than privacy violations/blatant security holes isn't right. To illustrate the absurdity of the DOJ policy consider this: I do some scientific programming myself and I usually use the excel plugins for C to generate tables/graphs - if MS is forced to change their OS why shouldn't someone be able to force me to write a program in such away as to force me to generate charts using openoffice/staroffice or even Corel's wordperfect suite? If people don't like MS's software change to linux/freeBSD/MacOS where you can do whatever you want - it just isn't equitable to MS to force them to change stuff in their OS just because a group of people dislike IE (for gosh sakes if you didn't like MS why would you spend the $100+ to use their software?).
How about this:
Drag a link of EasyCDcreator to the SENDTO folder.
Now use the SendTo link to Burn some files.
Watch MS-CDburner fire up
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
I used to look at this sort of thing and be glad MS was changing or doing something right for a change. But lately I can't help but but enjoy when Microsoft screws people. The reason is that there are so many people I know of who claim MS sucks and whatnot. Yet these same people are unwilling to try the alternatives. I hope there are more worms that attack windows. I hope people have to call Microsoft and wait on hold for 2 hours to activate a product they purchased legally. I'm glad MS removed support for win 98. The only way to get through to people is to hit them. So rather than try to stop MS from doing it I'll stand in the corner and laugh. I guess I'm beginning to believe that legal intervention won't change things. The only way for things to change is to let people get screwed by MS enough times (30-40 roughly) then they may begin to start to see some of the problems so many /.ers have with MS.
Then they'll either try a new OS or they'll keep bitching and just keep on taking it. (In my experience people tend to do the later)
People will get what they deserve.....maybe that's a bad way to look at it but oh well....I'm tired of waiting on hold to explain why I have to reinstall my wintendo again.
... I mean, a lot of the computer scientists who work for Microsoft very definitely have an agenda and if its not so much of a social agenda, I don't know what it is.
...
It is naive to think that computing sciences is stagnant or not going anywhere, because it is: in big ways, and small ways, and all kinds of ways. Moores law, and the fundamental principles of computer science, all lead to a heck of a lot more advances in very short periods of time, in ways which fundamentally change our culture. Look at the cultural/technological shift from 1994 to 2004, 10 short years of Internet acceptance in modern society, for example.
Microsoft know this - the core 'knowledge pool' of the company know this. Heck, grand new order thinking, such as PDA-style computing, has been in design and a tangible target in many corporations strategic agenda's for years; the ideal of ubiquitous computers is at least 50 years old.
Microsoft are playing big games. They want to be the ones who turn on the worlds largest computing system, defining the standards for such a beast, and it is this factor that drives the company's strategies of acquisition in technologically compelling competitors
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I use Mozilla most of the time, but some sites that I need only use IE (like banking, etc.),i.e. I must use IE frequently, which really sucks.
Makes me wonder if M$ has deals with certain large companies to code for IE on purpose, for instance 10% off on XP purchases if your websites rely on IE, etc.
Big business isn't into cool. They can't afford it. It's one of the signals that indicate when your business has shifted from being a small company to a large company.
It's pretty simple, really.
A new, small company comes up with a really cool product that nobody ever thought of, or at least never bothered to try to sell. The company is innovative, smart, hip, and all those happy adjectives.
They continue improving their spiffy product, making it easier to use, better, stronger, faster, able to brush your teeth, or whatever. They don't generally branch too far into other directions, unless they're forced to by some competing company who is doing a better job... but even then, they'll still be innovative.
Eventually, if the company is smart, has the right people in it, and manages to play its cards right, it might set the standard for the kind of product it provides. Everyone else is expected to live up to them as a standard. When this happens, you start to see the suck happen.
The company will continue to try to improve their products, but they won't generally stray too far away from their core product, because they often have too many investors who expect that core to provide them with a return for their investment. Plus, they've spent so much time and effort grasping that domain, they can't easily or quickly move the company in another direction. You kind of wind up seeing everything from the perspective of that product, which limits your ability to be creative.
As the company gets bigger, the problem continues. In time, the only thing that can cause the huge company to shift direction is a significant threat to their core product by a competing technology.. something that makes your technology obsolete, but works in a completely different fashion.
The biggest threat to Microsoft will not be an operating system. Not directly. It will be a shift in thinking. One possible threat is the open-source phemonemon, with its variety of operating systems (to include the current darling, Linux) and applications and such.
Another possible threat might be very small computers.. pocket-sized or so.. that distributes our current workloads to even more granular levels, which seems to be what has a number of companies excited right now (except nobody has managed to pull this off properly yet).
Your cellphone holds your telephone numbers, and maybe communicates with a series of servers to acquire other phone numbers as needed, eliminating the need for phone books. Then, while you're talking to your friend, the two of you decide to meet at a favorite restaurant on Saturday around noon, so you forward the appointment to your clock at home, which will cause your phone to ring (or send e-mail, or whatever mode it becomes set for as you go about your day) about fifteen minutes prior to your appointment with a text message telling you where you need to be. Meanwhile, you've been taking some notes concerning the conversation on your tablet, and after some thought, you realize that you need some comments from another friend, but know that he's busy with something. So you send the notes on your tablet to your friend via e-mail (or whatever technology is most appropriate), which automatically finds its way to your friend in some appropriate way (maybe he's really quirky, and has set up a tablet in his bathroom so when he's on the john, he can review such notes).
I think that's the sort of thing that has a great chance to rock Microsoft's world. Get rid of chaining people to desktops, and if you do this quickly and effectively enough, Microsoft will crumble.
And so it goes.
If you install a image viewer like ACDSee all your images are still opened with Windows Image Viewer, EVEN THOUGH if you go into properties of the image it shows, Opens with: ACDSee Click Change, Click ACDSee again and it will then open that type of file format with ACDSee and not Windows Image Viewer. Very Very Annoying
The company will continue to try to improve their products, but they won't generally stray too far away from their core product, because they often have too many investors who expect that core to provide them with a return for their investment. Plus, they've spent so much time and effort grasping that domain, they can't easily or quickly move the company in another direction.
I think you are wrong here. There are lots of bright people, and lots of bright people running companies, that aren't going to experience this sort of tunnel vision.
I think the problem is that every time you try to come up with something "new and innovative", you are taking large risks. Small companies do it all the time, and the vast majority sink. The ones you here about are the ones that "make it", that actually had a good idea, the right people, and probably a bit of luck.
The ones that fail, the company goes bankrupt and is split up among creditors. In effect, the small companies can take huge risks, because it's not like they're going to really lose millions of dollars anyway. It's all other peoples' money, and lines of credit.
Big companies can't afford to take those huge risks. When there project fails, they can't just say "oops, guess I'm bankrupt". They have eat the costs of the failure.