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Windows Could Lose Media Player in Europe?
Chris Gondek writes "If Microsoft cannot settle an antitrust case brought by European Union regulators, the company may be ordered to remove Windows Media Player as an integrated feature of the dominant Windows operating system, at least for personal computers sold in Europe.
The European Commission also could order Microsoft to include rival media players with Windows to make those products as easy for users to access as Microsoft's own music and video player."
In fact this is so cool, why don't you post it again in a couple of days so we can all enjoy it for a second time?
Oh I see you already have done. Carry on then.
Windows won't lose media player, hax0rs will just lose another source of free computing power.
Europe's a pretty big place... if they lose it there, they might never see it again.
This is a special excite
This
(AP) Microsoft Corp, responding to the unbundling of Media Player from Windows, announced today a broad partnership with RJ Reynolds where a carton of some of RJ Reynold's famed brands, such as Camels, will be offered with Windows Longhorn for Home edition.
"We're excited about adding the Camel camel as one our of automated helpers.", said Microsoft President Steve Balmer. "For example, during a longer search, our Camel character will light up and ask a user to join in."
The Microsoft Longhorn RJ Reynolds edition is expected to be released world wide.
This is my sig.
Browsers and media players *are* part of a modern operating system.
Rivals can simply include an operating system with their media players if they want to compete.
Release this WMP-free version of Windows just before SP2. Make sure SP2 always installs WMP and sets defaults back to WMP. The European regulators get to feel like they've accomplished something for a few days and MS gets to keep leveraging their monopoly. It's a win-win situation. Well, except for the free market.
Next we'll see a game developer in the EU suing MSFT for the monopoly practices when it comes to solitare and freecell.
Why stop there? Notepad is holding back the free marketplace.
I won't even mention the oppressiveness of the Calculator.
with Corel being back in the word processing game, next thing we'll see is them demanding that MS remove notepad from windows because it competes with Word Perfect.
Will I still be able to play my pr0n!?
I'm a FreeBSD user so I say this without bias...
if you are a FreeBSD user how can you say ANYTHING without bias?
Fact: BSD users are losing IQ points...
RealPlayer is far worse
"Good day. I see I'm not registered to play MP3, MPG, or AVI. You must have mistakenly unchecked them during install. I've fixed this error automatically"
"Hi! Just thought I'd pop up a message telling you there are new ads to view! Click here to view"
"Trying to uninstall me!? Please write a paragraph on your reasons for uninstalling and submit it to RealMedia for approval. Have you considered upgrading instead?"
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
No, you've got the wrong thinking. It's ok to do this to Microsoft because they beat kittens. Sometimes you just have to... rework things a little to stop the kitten beating.
If McDonald's was a court-determined monopoly with 90+% penetration, including BK fries might not sound as silly as it does now.
badness 10000
Yes, but in F34nor's alternative universe, the role of goverment is to subvert the will of the majority.
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How exactly would you download a browser without one coming pre-installed?
Back in the old days, we had this thing called "ftp"...
Later, a future Service Pack will 'break' the competitors products.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.