Slashdot Mirror
A Look at Microsoft's Regulatory Problems
jrexilius writes: "The Economist has a great article on the state of the EUs anti-trust case against microsoft, background, and future troubles with google. One interesting comment was 'Microsoft is preparing to use its dominance in web-browser and operating-system software to promote itself in yet another separate market--search engines this time'."
This is exactly what REALLY ticked me off with them (in the IT adm position no less). I put up with their marginal quality on the desktop up until this point. Sure, part of me still wished I had gone OS/2 there as well, but I digress. I certainly still remember buying PC's that I had to pay the Windows tax on ... even though they still run Linux to this day (except one actually which is one of the Netware servers).
Microsoft may some day conclude that the costs of constant regulatory battles--legal costs, fines, bad publicity, and bad relationships with governments--exceed the benefits of its Windows monopoly.
One can only hope. In the mean time it's still Linux in the data-centers and my basement for that matter. OS.X on my desktop, thank you very much. And yes, they talk NFS and not SMB with each other as well. It's faster... You know what I've learned at the offices that have agreed to run Linux and/or Mac's? Within one year it's obviously cheaper and faster than before. Almost ironical after reading all the Microsoft funded ROI type studies showing the exact oppisite. I thought something smelled fishy.
'cause i rtfa... stupid me.
If by dominance you mean they have captured the market spewing unwanted popups and spam, well duh!
God Bless America
God Bless America , with the worst crime levels in the first world
God Bless America , where "democracy" means a rich, white male as Presiden t
God Bless America , the biggest consumer of the world's natural resources
God Bless America , where "freedom of speech" means race-hate groups like KKK
God Bless America , and its massive and ever-growing poverty gap
God Bless America , with the highest obesity levels in the developed world
God Bless America , all its appalling "sitcoms" with no grasp of irony
God Bless America , because corporations should be allowed to run amok
God Bless America , wasting billions to attack foreign countries
God Bless America , and thank God I don't have to live there.
For users, changing operating systems, and even browsers, can be quite painful. In the case of an OS, old apps might nor work, and you might have to learn a new interface, and there may even be a cost of purchasing the OS. For browsers, it's hard to become aware of alternatives (for regular folk) and a download (on dialup) may take a while. For search engines, though, it's simply a matter of loading a new page, and maybe changing a setting somewhere. Not to mention the fact that even common folk know about Google, and it's become a part of the language. MS can't just "win" the search engine war by pointing users there by default.
I consider Google to be a has-been at this point. Let's face it: 1) it no longer has the usefulness it once did, due to all the spam in it. 2) Google has so far failed to do anything constructive about it. 3) Google's new technologies just aren't that good anymore. Look at Froogle--I have yet to see it perform as well as things like PriceWatch. 4) Google is losing business left and right--most prominent example: Yahoo is now planning to dump Google. 5) Although many (including myself) have applauded Google in the past for sticking to its core competency of searching, it also means they have failed to take advantage of the synergies possible in a full-blown portal, like Yahoo.
I think it is high time Google either get its act together quick, or be finished off by someone who wants to do better, like Microsoft, or Alltheweb.
I've tried Linux and it's great for a user created OS. However it still has long way to go before it's ready for prime time in the desktop area.
I choose to use XP, because it suits my needs. Don't look down upon me or insult me because my choice isn't the same as yours.
Microsoft may have software on the majority of computers sold... but my god, we all use google.
In the land of pirating with ease... the man who holds the data, not the software, will win.
Bill isn't dumb... and realizes this; thus, the push into the search engine world.
One more reason that I really like google.
Davak
HOWTO: Be an American
Version 1.0 / M
America, eh folks? It's a pretty screwed up place. Unfortunately, but not indefinitely, the USA's weapons of mass destruction make it the most powerful country in the world (militarily). As a result, it helps to be aware of American society and fit into it, and our quick 8-step guide should have you on the path to burger-munching enlightenment.
1 - Buy yourself a gun
To become a fully-fledged Yank, you'll need to get a weapon. Americans think that having more killing machines magically makes their country safer, and it helps them to walk around saying "I'll put a cap in your ass". Even though the concept of "no guns = no gun-related crimes" is alien to the average Yank, it'll give you a false sense of security in this country with the highest crime rates in the developed world.
2 - Put on at least 25 stone
Skinny? Medium? Chubby? That won't cut it in the good ol' US of A. Because America has the highest obesty levels on the planet, you'll need to get those rolls of flab built up. Eating 18 waffles with Maple syrup for breakfast (and visiting Burger King five times in a day) is all natural when much of the world is suffering massive poverty. Get fat and fit in.
3 - Learn the lingo
We've talked about issues affecting society, but on a personal level you'll need more knowledge (or ignorance as it may be) to fit in. First, forget proper English. Confuse "your" with "you're". Say "must of" instead of "must have". Whenever anything interesting occurs, say "shucks" repeatedly. Instead of clever spontaneity or witty insults, call people "asswipes". It's funny!
4 - Throw away all maps, history books etc.
To really feel a part of American society, you must lose all knowledge of the world. Forget where Poland is. Scrap your knowledge of the lengthy Chinese history. Make cretinous remarks like "India? Is that in Africa?". Because ALL that matters is America, and it doesn't matter how pathetic you look to educated people the world over.
5 - Become totally irrational and nonsensical
Spout on about the Constitution, and then make drastic changes to it. Talk about "freedom of speech" and watch TV programmes about the Ku Klux Klan. Rant on about market freedom, and sit back as companies run riot and destroy the economy with their anti-competitive practices. Essentially, act idiotic at all times.
6 - Sue everyone you ever meet
The USA doesn't produce many decent quality products, so the society is crumbling into a litigation-happy joke. With so many jobs going overseas to talented workers, your only option left is to start legal proceedings. About anything. Someone step on your toe? Get some hotshot downtown lawyer to sue their ass!
7 - Get a "shrink"
Americans have a hard time dealing with their own problems in a mature manner, and prefer to spend hundreds of dollars sitting in front of someone and whinging. However trivial your problems may be, blast them out like a baby!
8 - Watch abysmal TV
Forget educational programmes and incisive documentaries. Your ideal night in is with your gun, six cheeseburgers and a Friends box set. Watch as some over-paid talentless "actor" enters the scene, and whoop and scream hysterically as he delivers some ridiculously poor wisecrack.
So there you have it! Those 8 steps should have you killing innocent people, piling on pounds and acting like a moron in no time. America awaits you, brave hero! Just get out before it collapses in disarray.
END
If you mean Microsoft is dominant because it makes quality products and capitalizes on it...then i'd have to say you are right.
Once again Microsoft fails to realize having an OS and a web browser does not mean you have a great search engine.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
As far as I know, Microsoft has only made money in areas where the company has a temporary monopoly, or where being aggressive temporarily makes a profit.
Microsoft has a history of bad management, especially in thinking that the company can be aggressive toward customers, without paying any penalty.
If someone had a monopoly on water, he would make so much money that he would make Bill Gates look poor in just a few days. To unskilled observers, temporary monopolies make those associated with them look like skilled businesspeople.
When you are a billionaire, what is your biggest need? Is is to make more money? No, your biggest need is for connectedness with other people. By his aggressive behavior, Bill Gates has enforced disconnectedness, and he is in that sense a poor man.
Google's results nowadays almost remind me of using Webcrawler back in 97. No thanks. Here's to the next search engine king (whomever it turns out to be).
... are that
:-))
1) MS might be forced to either bundle competitors (Go Ogg!) or disable Windows media (which the commission don't seem to fancy)
2) The commissioners claim to have learnt from the mistakes of other regulators when dealing with MS, and have pre-emptively included a number of 'you can't do it *this* way' examples in their recommendations
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Microsoft isn't a monopoly, per say, they're just really successful. If Microsoft were truly a monopoly you would only be running your Microsoft applications on your Microsoft operating system that was running on your Microsoft hardware. Back when Ma Bell existed, you couldn't even buy your own phone, you had to lease it from the phone company...now that's a monopoly. Microsoft may be market dominant, but they're not the only choice out there. You can always put linux, os2, beos, or whatever else on your pc. You can run 3rd party applications on your windows operating system. Plus, no one's forcing you to use it.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
God I'm so sick of you turds.
-Your fellow euro-citizen
Here we have a troll replying to himself.
I don't know about everyone, but I'm not a Microsoft Hater, but I'm not a lover of them either. I don't think they 'won' the battle with the US courts, I think they bought the president. Pretty lame anti-trust slap on the wrist only after Bush comes into office. Prior to that it was looking like they were going to break into bitty pieces.
Just my viewpoint.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
I still find google incredibly useful. It turns up things no other search engine does for me. An they should not try to copy Yahoo. If I want yahoo, I will go to yahoo. Each engine has its strengths. The trick is to be distinct so that users know which engine turns up the best results for different types of searches.
Google has more data that Microsoft. Google is a better search engine than MSN. I don't think that anybody disagrees with this. However...
The next step, inevitably, will be to integrate such search functions into Windows, on the grounds that it constitutes a core technology that should be part of the operating system. In his keynote speech at last November's Comdex show in Las Vegas, Mr Gates demonstrated a prototype technology called "Stuff I've Seen" which does just that. It allows computer users to search for context-specific words in e-mails and in recently visited web pages, as well as in documents on their computers.
Microsoft has it's reaches into the majority of homes and businesses in the world. As broadband always-on internet becomes more popular, more and more services will really be clicks to other sites.
Here I describe one of the ways that microsoft uses this in the new version of Word as a translation machine. The information goes out onto the internet and word brings you back the information pretty seemlessly.
This is where Microsoft knows how to crush their enemies. By using easy clicks with integration, they can direct people to Microsoft search, translation, music, or whatever.
As the article states, before long your searches and data will be references my Windows software in multiple ways. Windows doesn't just want the web integrated into your system... they want their web integrated into your system.
Davak
drop all this reason and argument and just say:
... split and generally encourage the smaller players
"You're doing too good and that's damaging the economy."
A blog I run for the wealth
In the last few years there has been a lot of hype, at least with business folks, that Web sites like Yahoo, Google, MSN, Netscape would become big "Portals." on the Internet, driving all others into obscurity. It sounds like Microsoft to a certain extent may still believe this. You control the results of the search, you are in a position to profit from it. To quote the certain to come business advice:
(1) Leverage monopoly to get into search engine business
(2) ??
(3) Profit!
What I've seen in practice however, is quite different. It seems as if the new users tend to get sucked into the "portal" concept when they sign up with Earthlink, MSN, etc. But as they become more Internet savvy, they migrate and spend less and less time on those sites. It's like a giant ponzi scheme... once they run out of new people to sign up, they're done.
I guess with the speed of the tech cycle right now, If Microsoft profits off of something like this for even a couple of years, then it's worth it (well, duh... Hmmm... case of the painfully obvious this morning.) Bottom line though, I think at this point Microsoft is still coming in well above negatives like costs to litigate, negative regulatory environments, bad feelings, slashdot insults, etc. Microsoft is a business, bottom line, as soon as it gets more expensive to work this way... they'll change strategies. As long as this is working, which it obviously is, they'll stick with it even if God himself came down and said stop.
"...The mice will see you now..."
But it's like this:
You know your box is "sick/ill", it spreads virii!
I can see the "infected" pass by in my serverlogs(they don't hurt me, I got a good imune system).
lets take this a little further:
Note:some maybe pesonally insulted by this analogie!
If I had AIDS and I would go fucking around without a condom, what would you think of me?
Thats about how I think of people who know their box is "sick/ill" and still use it for their everyday tasks.
needless to say this applies to most people cause most people know M$ spreads virii.
( I do not mind if you use it off line, but whenever you connect make sure you are protected, virii create a lot of useless traffic, on top of that everybody needs to update their virii progs, which results in even more traffic.
guess who makes money out of all this!?!)
I'm not a Microsoft Hater
;-)
If you're extremely fortunate, you'll get the GNU/chair.
Do you like German cars?
'Microsoft is preparing to use its dominance in web-browser and operating-system software to promote itself in yet another separate market--search engines this time.'
If Microsoft were to begin selling bubble gum, the "interesting" quote would be: 'Microsoft is preparing to use its dominance in web-browser and operating-system software to promote itself in yet another separate market--bubble gum this time.' Whatever.
Calling the orginial quote "interesting" is a somewhat of an overstatement.
As soon as Linux is ready for the desktop, Microsoft is going to hell. Nobody is going to want to pay for software let alone software which is strictly limited in variety. If Microsoft was smart, they would stop trying to suck every penny out of every company, and start producing software which doesnt limit a users choice. And with DRM in Longhorn, there is going to be even more incentive to migrate to Linux.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
You must be some sort of lawyer. Perfectly reasonable???? its like saying "after all, Musillini made the trains run on time."
If by poor you mean sleeping with billions and billions of dollars, why yes, yes he is....but seriously, you made a good point there..
Jisho - A Japanese English German Russian French Dictionary for the rest of us.
But it does confirm that Microsoft is exploiting its desktop dominance in workgroup server software; and that, by "tying" WMP to Windows, it has overtaken its chief rival in the media-player market, RealNetworks.
_Of course_ Microsoft will continue to use their position in the desktop world to compete against their competitors. They always have, and they always will. The fact ist the legal system moves at a much slower pace than technology. It's a simple formula:
1) Use monopoly to compete against competitors now.
2) Drag out law suits for as long as possible
3) Make token settlement like coupons which continue to expand Windows penetration
4) Profit & repeat.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
Damn! Slahsodt should have an automatic spellcheck! Fat finger syndrome lives.
What's your point? Are you proposing that Microsoft should be subject to another set of rules than the other companies?
PS. It's "Mussolini".
The owls are not what they seem
That rather is the point of anti-trust law.
how to invest, a novice's guide
A company, with that marketshare, WILL be subject to other standards than other companies.
Nothing wrong in that.
If Microsoft would stop abusing its position, they would avoid this kind of regulation.
Governments will need to protect other businesses from Microsofts abuse.
And Microsoft do abuse their market position
Everyone's free to make a complaint against Microsoft.
The owls are not what they seem
If history is any guide, it is not difficult to predict which of these two paths Microsoft will take. On the other hand, there are a few examples of companies that have begun as monopolies and actually ended up increasing the value of the company faster after being forced to give up their monopoly position. For example, after the breakup of AT&T in 1982, the companies formed as a result have grown much more quikly. According to this article at Businessweek
So... Microsoft splitting itself up would be good not only for consumers and competitors, but perhaps also for its stockholders.
But one that I have really come to like is vivisimo.com, check it out, and after performing a search ecspecially take a look at the "preview" feature
Everyone has.
"No person unassociated with military or law enforcement is to be granted a permission to carry firearms ammunition on his person..."
Everytime I do a search, I find what I am looking for almost allways on the first page. I would say that it is still tops.
As to taking advantage of other tech., that remains to be seen. Google took several years to get their top billing. I am going to guess that it will take a while before they catch on (or MS kills them).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The parent post is not interesting.
It is completely misinformed.
It has been legally established that MS, for all intents and purposes is a monopoly.
Anything else about this matter is uninformed babbling that deserves only to be rebuked as soon as such nonsense is repeated (yet once again).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I ask you to try to get a cola flavored soda in your super market.
What's your point? I can get any of the major brands, or the generic store brand cola.
You don't see the Coca Cola Company telling your supermarket that if they carry any other brands the price they pay for Coke will go up, do you?
You keep posting your 3-point
bullet list each day. Why?
It's not like it's very interesting.
And your posts are way too long.
No 'content'. And stop blaspheming.
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before. Then the bird said, 'Batman touched my junk liberally'
Boy, my post went right over your head, didn't it?
MS hasn't been lowering the price of anything! Prices of computer hardware and software were steadily falling long before MS got into the market, and continued to fall afterwards. MS has lowered their prices and improved their products more slowly than almost anyone else! If you think you're better off than you would have been in a competitive market, I'm sorry for you!
I am not going to debate the truth of this article.
However we hear the same thing over and over.
So I cannot begin to hold MS completely blameless.
What I cannot understand is at this point, with their huge advantage just in cash reserves, why they cannot just do the work and make the best products.
The potential they have to really do something awesome when put in contrast to their actual tactics it's just sad.
I've always wondered, what exactally would you split Microsoft up into? Or something like that.
You know the whole issue of tying WMP to Windows being an issue is silly. Hello!, Windows Media Player has been included with Windows for free since Windows 3.1 days (yeah go ahead and check it if you don't believe it). So for many many years MS was including WMP with Windows and Real did not have a problem with it? Suddenly one fine day Real has issues with it? What has happened is that MS came up with a superior product ever since Windows Media 8 and started kicking Real's *ss. Who would want to use Real's intrusive annoying player when a better alternative was available?
With Windows Media 9 Microsoft really started shining in the Media Player arena and Real instead of competing wants to run crying to momma. Get a clue Real! If you hadn't abused your users with the intrusive crap of player you had then no one would have looked for alternatives. As long as WMP was inferior, Real was in fact the one abusing its dominant position by shoving a pathetically intrusive player on its users. Guess what they did when they had an alternative? Real squandered away its lead when real (pun intended) competition was coming its way. I guess it was sheer haughtiness on its part that it thought no one could beat it. When it has finally woken up and realised that no one is going to give it a second chance, then guess what happens. WMP9 is what decimated Real since its a much superior product overall compared to Real. Now the irony is that WMP9 is not bundled with any OS but is a separate download. Yet inspite of that its usage is skyrocketing.
The other story in all this is how Apple has been able to keep QuickTime alive and not face Real's fate. Well the QuickTime player also does some bad things (like adding itself to runonce reg key) but overall it respects its users a lot more. QuickTime and Windows Media are now the most dominant Media technologies on the net. So how come Apple is not complaining about Windows Media? How are they able to hold on to the market? Clue to Real: They actually compete. They care about their users and make a better player or better codecs (Apple has very good support for MPEG4). This whole media player tying issue looks like some kind of EU vendetta against a large US company. In fact the original case wasn't even about this till Real went crying to the EU comission. Makes me sick. What next? Tying of WordPad to Windows will become illegal since that hurts AbiWord? How silly can people get really.
Amazingly effective. To the point of being annoyingly effective.
It's a shoot first, ask questions second tactic.
With this kind of an attitude France and Germany will be left alone to form the hard core of Europe. You'll drive away the moderate states like us and the new member states in the east. Is that what you want? Where is the unified Europe France has always spoken of? Or was it just a dream of a Franco (German) led superpower?
Let's face it. America has a rotten government at the present, but shit happens. They'll get over with it just like before. On the other hand, the crap people like you are shoveling on ordinary Americans here and in the real life is uncalled for. Throw rotten apples at GWB and Blair, but let's act civilized on this level.
Let us not stoop to the same level as the freedom fries-crowd. Prolonged idiocy like that and France's present tribal mentality will only get a lot of people killed in the long run.
In other words, if I were investor, I'd hold off buying Google stock when they IPO.
You should hold off buying google when they go IPO because everybody else will be buying... and the price will be way too high.
After a while, the stock will come back down to a fair market price... and that will be when you should buy.
This has happened before when Yahoo and other hot companies have gone public.
Davak
Mod parent up!
The thing that I think most Portal Pushers miss is the difference between having content and pointing to content. New users eventually learn where the content is - even if it's just from having hundreds of bookmarks - even if they're not internet or computer savvy. By repetition even my grandma can now get to google for searching and the new york times website by typing "nyt.com" into the title bar. This is the same woman who calls me every power outage to figure out what button to push to get the "tv-part" back on. To make it work they need more than just the search engines, they need to provide the content. AOL, MSN, and the like just don't provide enough good, unique content to be worth it. IMO.
To make an excellent indexing, searching, and categorizing group (read: Portal) and top-notch content providers (read: everybody else) would be extremely difficult, very expensive, and kludgy/unwieldy. Most of the best content is started by hobbyists and is community-supported -- I can't see a huge company (read: microsoft) able to compete quality or quantity-wise with the current and emerging nice sites.
I don't think the super-site is going to work.
Hey!
I think I just recognized a lot of myself in that description. You've got any links about autisticy (sic?)?
When google results come back too "commercialized" (five pages of online stores before the first useful link), I go there and find stuff.
I quit reading the Economist article after the first paragraph gushed about how Bill Gates, "combines knightly philanthropy on an unprecedented scale with a long and impressive combat record." It's hard to admire someone who's broken the law so many times to rob everyone. The best article on Bill's charity was done by Salon years ago. Since then, much of his giving has been suspiciously close to countries considering free software. There have been and are today much better examples of philanthropy than Bill Gates. The hero worship sickens me.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
They are already there. Get you some Mepis today. Mepis is a Debian based distro, much like KDE. It autoconfigures itself in a way that M$ with it's goofey propriatory reboot required drivers can only dream of. More interestingly, it has a graphical install that sticks the working and configured OS onto your hard drive. Click and drool has arived in free software and it comes clean, without security problems, and with all the goodies that larder M$ - office productivity suits.
DRM, embeded in hardware, is Microsoft's last ditch attempt to stop the comming avalanch of free software use. Rather than being forced to throw away your old computer so that you can get XP, people are going to save themselves loads of money and trouble with CDs like Mepis. Once you discover free software you don't go back because you discover how badly you have been lied to about free software by comercial software companies. Microsoft can not compete on merits, so they are trying to make it technically and legally imposible for others to do anything.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Surely you jest.. that staement is almost as bad FUD and flase BS as the statement that java makse s apps crash when the user stating that fact views flash presentations in a browser eachday ass most do not know that flash payer is in fact a java media player running java..:)
Don't Tread on OpenSource
I beleive the phrase you're looking for is "natural monopoly". You're insistence on the use of the term "naturalized" makes me sincerely doubt your credentials as an expert at economics, since I don't think most monopolies are "introduced from another region and persisting without cultivation" or "planted so as to give an effect of wild growth".
I've you're using Firebird then you've got a preview feature for any hyperlink. It's called CTRL+CLICK.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
It is my opinion that the eagerness of the US courts to drag Microsoft into legal struggles has been the cause of the great IT depression.
I have been fascinated since I was a teenager by computers. Nobody knew about them. My parents nor my friends weren't interested. But I knew that the microcomputing IT sector was going to become immensely important, and it was with enormous fascination how I saw things falling into place.
During the end of the '90 the sector was finally receiving acknowledgment of its tremendous importance.
So I was shocked when first I heard about Microsoft being prosecuted. I thought: "Now that the microcomputing industry is finally being appreciated, they want to destroy a great company, out of pure jealousy and disdain. This will not bode well for anyone."
Along with smashing the image of its leader, US 'justice' has managed to smash the entire industry, and that includes you, dear reader, into pettyness and unimportance. You see, the sector had become too important, and something had to be done about it. Divide and conquer. Chop it into manageable pieces, and shatter the hopes of visionaries.
It has taken three years before the first signs of a weak recovery. And you can be sure that it will be a very, very long time before things look rosy again.
Slave away reinventing the wheel in your cubicles while power and money is kept out of your hands. Will YOU be able to get somewhere if even the great in our sector are not allowed to succeed ?
Think about it.
300$-500$ doesn't seem like big enough fine to me. How much hasn't Microsoft robbed us consumers in terms of overprices for their monopolist software? 300-500$? That's for a year... Common guys...give them a fine.
I don't think that MS will be able to buy its way out of their legal troubles with the EU like they did in the U.S. but you never know.
The problem with a 600 pound gorilla is that if it does not get what it wants it will beat the crap out of you until you are dead and take it anyway.
As far as their search engine is concerned, making it default will increase traffic to their site as so many windows users just go with what is already there for them. Of course we can trust MS to not filter content so bad words like Linux, Netscape, Opera, anti-trust and Mac will be available through their search engine.
Palladium is going to change this. Microsoft is getting hardware companies to cooperate with them, and ultimately to have computers only run windows.
There is another article in the same issue of The Economist (you need a subsctiprion to access) in which the magazine says
Begin Quote
[............]
Isn't this simply a matter of Microsoft competing vigorously? The strange thing is that its products invariably succeed in PC-based markets where the dominance of Windows provides an advantage: office productivity, web-browsing, media playback and servers. Yet in other markets that have nothing to do with PCs, such as mobile phones, set-top boxes and games consoles, the company is far less successful. Odd, that.
This newspaper has long argued, and still believes, that a break-up of Microsoft is the only remedy that would have any impact on its conduct, by removing its key weapon, Windows. At the moment that seems out of the question. How else might Microsoft be stopped from illegally exploiting its monopoly? By the long-awaited rise of open-source software such as Linux, maybe, though that seems unlikely. Perhaps the company will eventually conclude that the costs, in bad publicity and constant legal battles, of maintaining its monopoly exceed the benefits, and choose to divest or open up Windows itself. But that also seems implausible when there are large monopoly rents to be had. Some day a break-up of this too-mighty firm will again have to be considered.
[end of article]
End Quote
.... or insightful! ;)
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
IMHO, governments adopting Linux is the ray of light through the clouds. If I target my applications to that market, then I need not fear MS. Sure, I will have to compete with all the rest of you. But we will compete as equals in a free market, not as weaklings against a bully.
Live long, and prosper!
There the same company. Basicly it is 63% google they know that differnet people need differnet searching methords so the provide 2 one being google one being yahoo.
Sometimes I find it curious to see you Americans struggle with your own prerogative: the free market enterprise. Don't you think that market forces will sort things out? Of course if your government (as well as other countries') keeps interfering by giving Microsoft special privileges it does skew things severely. So tell your government to foster equal competition between all players - let it NOT succumb to industry pressures to introduce 'standards' that favour a single player. Microsoft has excellent practices in persuading users to adopt and disseminate their formats. This is in no-one's interest other than Microsoft's. This is all trivial of course and self evident ...
I, for one, wlecome our new EU overlords,
And nobody is excited about high-tech startups anymore. Even more so about more or less mature companies whose potential is well known, and who is gonna receive the wrath of one little company from Redmond this year (rumor has it).
As soon as Linux is ready for the desktop, Microsoft is going to hell
Ummm, I have Linux on my desktop and it runs better than WinXP ever could. It could use more drivers for better Plug and Play but it is ready. Real question is: are users ready for Linux?
1.they should be forced to reveal on a public website with no cost or licence restrictions their "propriatory" file formats. (exactly which formats would have to be decided by a sutable panel made up of legal people and technical people but should include all the office file formats like word, excel, powerpoint, access). Also, all their "secret" APIs (for example hooks into the shell) and all their "secret" network protocols (for example, the various windows-only authentication for MS IIS and MS proxy server
2.they should be forced to make all their contracts with OEMs public and be banned from having secret contracts with OEMs.
3.they should be forced to sell OEM windows at one price and one price only to ALL OEMs.
4.they should be prohibited from restricting OEMs who ship (or want to ship, talk about shipping etc) systems with operating systems other than windows, systems with no operating system installed at all or systems containing windows in conjunction with one or more other opreating systems.
5.same as for 4. but for application software (i.e. OEM pre-installs mozilla or netscape or whatever else)
Basicly, force them open on the OEM desktop plus force them to give up the secrets that will allow their competitors (including Open Source) to talk to, interact with and share data with those products (windows, office, IE, IIS, MS servers, media player, MSN messenger and etc) that microsoft currently enjoys a monopoly on or that microsoft is currently using is monopoly power to push.
We'll be dead.
Microsoft continues to be sued for implementing things that any good web/media oriented operating system should have. A desktop should have an integrated file manager that seamlessly browses local and networked filesystems as well as web sites.
It should also have integrated media players capable of presenting a wide variety of formats. These are things that make a user interface more enjoyable.
The problem is that Microsoft cannot integrate these changes into their interface thoroughly without driving out competitors like Netscape and RealNetworks. If they use their market dominance status to do this, somebody (rightfully) is going to scream.
This is why an open-source model is superior. Once financial gain is taken from the equation, the legality of features like this is no longer an issue.
1) All data storage formats and application communication protocols need to publicly available at no charge. In other words make make "Open Standards" the law. Methods how to implement such data storage formats and application communication protocols could be perhaps patented, copyrighted or a trade secret. But NOT the data storage formats and application communication protocols. This is the only effective solution to the artificial bearers Microsoft has put in place to protect its Monopoly. This is not a Microsoft problem per say. Microsoft is just the best example of this problem. The Europe as the European Union is able to and should apply this law retroactively in to all Union Countries. This will give competitors to Microsoft sufficient market to be "economically" successful. The European Union can not force other or even suggest other countries outside the Union follow suit. And I strongly doubt that the US will be happy about this, because United States protected Microsoft because it is HUGE US company with even large political weight. However United States no longer controls the world. So I expect several Counties in Asia with large manufacturing and internal markets to adopt the European approach.
1) All data storage formats and application communication protocols need to publicly available at no charge. In other words make make "Open Standards" the law.
Methods how to implement such data storage formats and application communication protocols could be perhaps patented, copyrighted or a trade secret. But NOT the data storage formats and application communication protocols.
This is the only effective solution to the artificial bearers Microsoft has put in place to protect its Monopoly. This is not a Microsoft problem per say. Microsoft is just the best example of this problem.
The Europe as the European Union is able to and should apply this law retroactively in to all Union Countries. This will give competitors to Microsoft sufficient market to be "economically" successful. The European Union can not force other or even suggest other countries outside the Union follow suit. And I strongly doubt that the US will be happy about this, because United States protected Microsoft because it is HUGE US company with even large political weight. However United States no longer controls the world. So I expect several Counties in Asia with large manufacturing and internal markets to adopt the European approach.
...let's remember that European courts are nothing like American ones.
Unlike American courts, which do their own thing (e.g., compare the 9th and 11th Federal Circuit courts), European court decisions mostly reflect what the local government wants.
Also, European Governments - especially France - have recently shown themselves to be massively susceptible to bribery. Witness MEMRI's stories about how Saddam traded oil for positive opinions from leftists all across Europe.
This will be no different. Should Microsoft not get a positive decision, it simply means that it failed to pay off enough government hacks.
Condider a loss in this court case to be the end of one round of negotiations. Nothing more.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Here is an excerpt from one of my posts in July about the best way for Microsoft to auction its divisions. New comments are in brackets.
Addition: Believing MS is completely myopic, I assume that Longhorn and XBox2 will be delayed as MS concentrates on cost-cutting. They have already started offshoring to India and reducing the headcount on the west coast. I expect the company to implode before Longhorn is supposed to be released.
---
- Windows and Office actually make money, and are the reason MS exists.
[They will keep them together as long as possible since they define MS. I believe that the Office division will need to sell Linux versions to survive, and that could save the company, but they will wait until Windows has lost its monopoly, and by then it will be much too late.]
- Server SW would be a good choice, because it breaks even, but is too strategic to be sold first.
- Mobile software: Too much recent news about how Tablets and PocketPCs are strategic.
[I have not heard much hype about this recently. Are they pulling back?]
- Games: Game software companies are always sold cheap, but MS has the XBox hardware. Sell the software to Atari (formerly Infogrames). The XBox could be sold to a company wanting to get into gaming like NVidia, a company that sells consoles like Sony, or a Linux distributor who will sell it as a PC replacement and wants the existing public awareness of the trademark. MS can start by selling older titles to Infogrames: quick cash and it does not look like MS is folding.
[I have not read any news about their Game division recently; are they still releasing? Could we tell if they stopped new development of games?]
- Business software: Good choice. Say it was a mistake to upset other companies by having the GreatPlains purchase compete with MS's business partners. Good publicity, and a decent price.
[I am waiting, but again have not heard much news. Did MS turn off its publicity department?]
- MSN: With AOL on the run, MSN could look like it will increase marketshare. The problem is that the M stands for Microsoft. They could announce that they believe subscription services are obsolete, but that would kill the price. A quiet deal with Earthlink would be the best. I'd say AOL, but AOL has enough problems. But can a deal like this be quiet with the FCC watching? More likely MS will move move equipment and people to Earthlink, while keeping the receivables moving through MS to satisfy the regulators.
[Microsoft has already decided to stop promoting MSN.]
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,69 03,1136045,00.html
1) All data storage formats and application communication protocols need to publicly available at no charge. In other words make make "Open Standards" the law.
Methods how to implement such data storage formats and application communication protocols could be perhaps patented, copyrighted or a trade secret. But NOT the data storage formats and application communication protocols.
This is the only effective solution to the artificial bearers Microsoft has put in place to protect its Monopoly. This is not a Microsoft problem per say. Microsoft is just the best example of this problem.
The Europe as the European Union is able to and should apply this law retroactively in to all Union Countries. This will give competitors to Microsoft sufficient market to be "economically" successful. The European Union can not force other or even suggest other countries outside the Union follow suit. And I strongly doubt that the US will be happy about this, because United States protected Microsoft because it is HUGE US company with even large political weight. However United States no longer controls the world. So I expect several Counties in Asia with large manufacturing and internal markets to adopt the European approach.
This is addition to their games over the OEM licensing that you mention.
However, it is interesting that Linux is still sitting there, it would be hard to see it getting shelf/stall space unless it was selling.
The fun thing was when I was working in such places, we were forbiddden about getting Win from the market officially because of piracy but really because of virus fears. Not so with Linux, as we could verify the MD5s over the net.
HP merged with Compaq.
Gateway is buying EMachines.
IBM can never decide if they want to stay in the PC market.
Dell is still Dell, but wants to move into electronics.
[Yes, I am ignoring laptops. They can replace PCs, but are a very different business model.]
PC manufacturers have consolidated because the profit margins keep shrinking. If it were not for these awful contracts with Microsoft, every one of these vendors would be shipping a "free" OS to cut costs. Most people would not know the difference until their child's new game did not run.
It would be cheaper to write a few children's games than to pay the MS tax. Making a game unique and challenging are negatives when writing for children. They could invest in The Learning Company and insist the games are ported to Linux. The manufacturers could bundle the games for free, make it another marketing point, and still profit more than paying MS.
What else do you need? Every distro comes with email, multiple browsers, an office suite, a graphics program, a few movie players, and more games for adults than Windows. Make certain they can easily change the wallpaper. Get Maxis to port "The Sims". At that point, most of the population is covered.
I do want the boot process to be fixed. Single threaded booting means Linux is slower than Windows (for the boot. After that Linux wins easily.) Split the stuff required for the GUI from everything else. Get the drives mounted, X started, then hit them with the login screen. Make certain the firewall and network are running before the desktop finishes loading. The printers should be ready about then. Internet servers and everything else can finish up while the users are reading their email.
Linux is ready. The applications are there. We are just waiting for one of the large manufacturers to offer Linux as the default option so they can undersell the others.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
This is really the point: for my part, MS can bundle any software it wants on its platform, as long as this software doesn't make a proprietary/patented/secret protocol or data format ubiquitous.
If WMP was only a media player, able to play any standard media, it would compete with other software (still with the advantage of being preinstalled).
From the moment WMP "helps" people to switch from mpg/realmedia/ogg/... to MS-only standards, this kicks-off not only these other formats, but also non-Windows platforms. I don't care what player Windows users use (WMP, Winamp, or whatever), I know I can use XMMS, Xine, mplayer, or vlc on Linux to play most media files or streams, except those coming from MS (don't tell me I can use win32 dlls, I know that. But MS will do its best to stop this possibility).
And what pisses me off most, is when I find internet radio stations streaming .asf files, because I know they choose this format for its ubiquity on the desktop, and that forced them to use MS on their servers.
Luckily "waah!" plus throwing your toys out the pram isn't yet a legal argument. Though the Department of Justice nearly got away with using it.
On the one hand, an OS should provide support for playing media. (This is what MS say that bundling WMP does and is the 'good' effect of bundling).
On the other hand, an OS should not tie you, by default, to one proprietary media system (of protocols, file formats, server implementations etc.). (This is the 'bad' effect of bundling). You get WMP so you can play audio CDs, but it makes you a WMP-server customer too.
The former is, at best, a product improvement/ innovation, at worst, a slightly non-transparent cross-subsidization of one product by another.
The latter is pure abuse of power in one market to enter another (Real).
Is that the same MEMRI that is an ofshoot of Israeli military intelligence?
I'll believe them when hell freezes over.
Having said that, European governments in general are purchasable, and European politicians mostly corrupt, though i doubt that they are any more venal than most US politicians.
The importance of this initial decision is that it's by the European Commission, which is not a judicial body but has a long history of corruption, but that the second and third ports of call for an appeal are independent judicial bodies that do play by the rules of natural justice, and normally come to reasonable compromises when they don't kick the politicians in the teeth.
Courts in most of Europe are independent, even perversely so if pressure is applied to them - see the pursuit of Pinochet by Spanish magistrates against the wishes of the Spanish government as a prime example, and the fudge by the British courts to allow the murdering bastard to go back to Chile as an example of judicial corruption inspired by Uk government pressure.