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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.)
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Microsoft wants Windows to ship with Media Player for basically the same reason that almost every version of unix ships with a vi work-alike; it is a convenient utility that adds value to the product.
And who cares why they want to include some software. What's in Windows is pretty much their decision. If you want to force them not
to include something, you'd better have a damn good reason.
And in the age of free software, anti-competition rules no longer hold up. Would you like linux to be sued for "bundling" in bash, thus destroying the market for sh?
Can't view it. Seems to be a jpg though. There's an extra + on the first line but removing it doesn't help.
WRONG WRONG WRONG there is everything wrong with Microsoft bundling the browser with Windows. How many people do you honestly think would get Internet Explorer if they had to download it themselves. Look at it this way IE = more bugs, no pop up blocker, sercurity flaws galore (you can't get installed a patched version already,. you have to install it and then patch it) IE's service pack alone takes up 60ish mb. Firefox is a tenth of that and DOESNT not require any further patching. For someones thats conscious about how much they download and how long it takes, doesnt want to constantly reboot their computer to install a browser, doesnt want a email program forced down their throat when they only want a webbrowser, wants built in pop up and ad blocking, safety from spoofed url and other security quirks, who wouldnt choose Firefox over Internet Explorer? And this IS different from notepad. Notepad is a half functional program unlike IE. Can notepad open large files? does it have find and replace? Hell, even Dos Edit had more functonality than Notepad. For god sakes man, Microsoft wouldn't have got 90% market share in browsers if they didnt bundle it with the OS. I say and so would anyone else thats sane, let the customer DECIDE what browser they want to install and use. That is fair. Dont make them have to install something that they didn't ask for when all they wanted was the OS.
No, no, no. It will include a srtipping Clippy...
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.