Slashdot Mirror
EU's Mind 'made up' on Microsoft
Alain Williams writes "The BBC reports that Microsoft could soon be facing multi-billion euro fines and other sanctions for breaking European competition law.
The European Commission has finished drafting its decision in the case it brought against the software giant." Let's just hope that the EU can fine them cash and not accept Microsoft coupons like the US does. Clearly the best solution to an operating system monopoly is to give free copies of windows to school and eliminate the competition as early in the education process as possible.
Mr. Ballmer was just down at my sons' preschool dropping off copies of something called Microsoft Bob...
Activate "Operation European Freedom" immediately.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Yes, it would be just great if the pc manufacturers preloaded RealONE onto my pc instead. Oh dream of dreams, joy of joys.
Gates is getting a knighthood for contributions to international business while at the same time the EU (therefore by extension the UK) is fining microsoft for anti-competitive practices. Don't you just love irony?
> The EU can fine for an amount of 10% of the earnings within eu countries.
> Nintendo was once fined $600M for uncompetitive behaviour. How much do you think
> they can fine microsoft?
10% of the earnings.
cool... A free Xbox for everyone in Europe
I've never shoed a horse, but I once told a donkey to piss off!
Bait.
Switch.
A half-baked OS designed by baked designers for consumers in all degrees of...
Kevin Bacon.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
Oh, wouldn't that be terrible. Kind of like that Simpsons halloween episode - "Give us the baby or we will kill all your leaders in Washington".
The vast majority of Slashdot readers made up their minds about Microsoft years ago.
And deservedly so; it was for services to British industry.
And without Microsoft Britain's IT consultant industry would be a mere shadow of its present glorious self. There are literally tens of thousands of highly trained professionals scattered across the country poised to save poor innocents from the consequences of Microsoft's overly-complicated, bug-ridden, security-holed applications.
Speaking personally, without Microsoft there is absolutely no way I would have been able to afford my Powerbook.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Go ahead.
Say our OS can't be sold in Europe.
Tell your citizens that their old software cannot be used on a new computer.
Tell them the geek community says that Linux is so much better.
Most people on slashdot detest MS but the politicians are the real pond scum.
Regardless of the fevered things that you tell each other, MS is not an evil monopoly! No one forces you to buy anything from MS. Countries that are trying to force MS out are trying to create a monopoly for something in their back yard.
As part of the settlement or reparations, the EU should force Microsoft to pay for extensive ad campaigns and re-education initiatives targeted at providing users alternatives to Microsoft's own products (Linux, Mozilla, Real, etc.) -- that way, you not only get them to hand over cash (short-term pain), you also actually start fixing the whole monopoly problem to begin with.
This may sound funny at first, but let me explain. Most males I know surf for pr0n. Most of those also use IE to surf for pr0n. They don't have filters in place. They get hundreds of popups. They get spyware loaded onto their computers thanks to crappy ActiveX controls and hundreds of IE bugs. They have to browse one page at a time. In short, browsing for pr0n with IE sucks.
So here's the hook - you tell all your male friends (and any females you know who surf for it as well) that there's this cool new browser that makes surfing for pr0n more efficient. You don't have to elaborate until they ask why (and they will, trust me!). Then you explain to them that they won't get those nasty popups anymore, they won't get dodgy pr0n spyware installed, they can block out all those crappy flashing penis enlargement ads, and they can use cool extensions (such as Magpie and X to name two) to mass download a whole gallery in a few mouse clicks and erase their tracks afterwards.
Result - you'll have 90% browser domination in about one month.
You read it here first.
Visceral Psyche Films