MS May Be Forced To Sell Stripped-Down OS In EU

An anonymous reader submits "According to this article at Infoworld, Microsoft may be forced to sell a stripped-down version of Windows in the EU as a result of antitrust rulings, unless a settlement is reached during the next month to six weeks." (See this post from last week for more background on the EU's antitrust proceedings.)

Comments

All windows are the same

[superpulpsicle]

M$ can strip this out, that out and have a million different versions.

But in the end windows 2000 + XP nowadays really only differ by a few registry keys. Some programs can do the magic for you. Cough.... NTswitcher.... Cough.

Re:just wmp?

[krusadr]

This is really what it's all about. An OS provides an interface between the hardware and the software and other low level functions (i/o, permissioning etc)

Windows is not just (even?) an operating system - it's a monopolized distribution method for all the associated media and proprietary file formats.
Case in point, even though Internet Explorer is so lacking in security and features compared to any modern browser(tabs?), it is used by the massive majority of Windows users because they don't realise that a browser is NOT a part of the O/S and so don't seek an alternative.

The european governments don't have cosy relationships with Redmond. Et voila!

Why the EC and not the US?

[funked]

It's too bad that it takes the EC in order to bring about the possibility of these changes. I know it's not the same system [insert pro-America comment here], but aren't these the type of things that the United States should be fighting for?

Monti may also demand that Microsoft itself should propose "within a few months of a ruling" what Windows computer code it should reveal in order to make the operating system fully interoperable with rival software makers' programs for servers

Long overdue in my opinion, Microsoft is bundling way too much s&*^ together these days. They've built their entire market strategy around this idea; Just try to ask your Microsoft rep about any one product. The conversation may start with InfoPath, Sharepoint, Office, whatever, but will undoubtedly end up with discussions on Server 2003, MS SQL, Exchange, Commerce Server, ad infinitum until you have seen every single, poorly designed intertwined product they own. The truth is, Microsoft is right - their products only work well with each other.

I already have the source code anyway ;>

Last August the Commission told Microsoft that its practice of bundling Media Player into Windows amounted to an abuse of the operating system's dominant position because it placed rival music and video players at a disadvantage.

Since I have never opened Media Player on my Windows box, I have no idea what sense Microsoft's position makes... Although their crowd control, err DRM, may not work properly.

Re:Why the EC and not the US?

[Soko]

They've built their entire market strategy around this idea; Just try to ask your Microsoft rep about any one product. The conversation may start with InfoPath, Sharepoint, Office, whatever, but will undoubtedly end up with discussions on Server 2003, MS SQL, Exchange, Commerce Server, ad infinitum until you have seen every single, poorly designed intertwined product they own. The truth is, Microsoft is right - their products only work well with each other.

This is so true it hurts.

Anecdote begin

Back when Windows 2000 was about to be released, I had a big problem with a NT server. I was in a newspaper - a multi-platform shop that happens to have a daily deadline. Besides the PCs running Windows for business functions, there were lots of Macs in the creative and news rooms, along with various other servers on other OSes in the data centre. Anyway, the NT machines (fully patched and updated) kept on corrupting the Servies For Mac file index - and I kept on trying to rebuild it. I called MS support for $200 (or whatever it was) and complained about this problem, and even had an idea for them to pursue in order to possibly get a quick solution. After the "Let me ask my colleague" response from the MS techie, he forgot to turn off the mic. I overheard his colleague snidely remark "Tell him to ditch the Macs. Haha". I knew then that I wasn't about to get any help, since my company had the unmittigated gaul to use Macs instead of Windows.

I bought a server operating system from them for tidy sum, and they were making a joke about wanting to use something else besides thier OS for the clients of that server. Never mind the millions invested in Apple hardware, software, training and methods - they made a joke about thier OS holding up a deadline. To boot, I got the "Upgrade to 2000 when it comes out, SFM is 10X better" line. Nice, since all of the NT boxes were DEC Alphas, for which Windows 2000 support had just been pulled. They wanted me to spend millions in "upgrades", in order to fix a bug in their code. And I paid for the privilege of having them tell me that.

Microsoft earned my eternal scorn that day.

Rant^WAnecdote end.

Microsoft has gotten very, very arrogant - to the point that they believe that no one else on the planet is capable of a good idea. They make some good products to be sure, but whenever and wherever I can, I push OSS solutions ahead of Microsoft solutions, so I can still pick and choose what tools I deploy with a minimum of fuss about whose product that tool is. RedHat 7.2 is still a nice OS on an old AlphaServer 3305, and it doesn't discriminate as to what OS it provides services for. It just does exactly what you ask it to, and asks for precious little in return.

Soko

Re:This is a bad idea.

[LostCluster]

It reminds me of MS-DOS 6.21...

DOS 6.2 contained DoubleSpace which was ruled to have infringed on patents that were held by the maker of another drive-compression software called Stacker. As a result, Microsoft was required to release MS-DOS 6.21, a version that didn't contain DoubleSpace and had no other functional changes. What's more, they were also required to put out a step-up disk that'd upgrade 6.2 users to 6.21, all it did was delete the infinging program and upgrade command.com to report as the new version number, and price it at $10.

I remember seeing the step-up disk at Staples. It was in a small cardboard box with the front torn off, and the least attractive packing for a 1-disk program ever. No manual, just a small mailer-like wrapper around the individual disk. The store had only one box of 10 out, and it was shoved off to the side.

Microsoft didn't want to put this product out, nobody sane wanted to buy it... and it all showed.

BTW, the patent issue was later resolved in the typical Microsoft way. They settled the lawsuits by buying the company. MS-DOS 6.22 quickly came out, with the new patent-worry-free DriveSpace software, that did exactly the same thing DoubleSpace did with a few interface tweaks.

Re:On the same note....

[AstroDrabb]

You can use more then just Apple's media format on the Mac. You can even get Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X and RealOne for Mac OS X.

Apple does not have a monopoly of home computer users, Microsoft does. Most things MS "integrates" into their OS will become a monopoly simply because they have a monopoly on the home computer user market.