Microsoft Facing European Sanctions

Shakrai writes "CNN and Money Magazine are reporting that a draft decision by the EU committee overseeing the Microsoft investigation appears to recommend fairly severe sanctions against our favorite software company. The article states that the ruling will likely force Microsoft to offer a second version of Windows without 'built-in audiovisual software' (Windows Media Player) for EU customers. While this sounds like a good thing, the article also mentions that Microsoft has an appeals process and will likely get an injunction against enforcement while they pursue said appeal, which may take years."

Comments

Re:Why wouldn't I want windows to play back videos

[CantGetAUserName]

Yeah, but the idea is that the OEM does the video installation. Says that in the article :)

Re:But who wins in the end?

[penguinbrat]

Does nobody RTFA?!!

The aim is to free computer makers to sell Windows bundled with rival audiovisual software such as RealNetworks RealPlayer or Apple's Quicktime, the sources said.

Re:Media player an essential part of the OS???

[I confirm I'm not a]

IIRC, that's basically what the Commission said - right after RealNetworks demonstrated how to strip WMP from the OS. I'm amazed MS even bothered claiming it - I can only surmise that (a) they have non-geek lawyers or, (b) "we tried that lie with IE, and the dumb judge bought it, so let's try it again and see if we befuddle those dumb Euros".

Re:No wonder everyone's getting outsourced!

[dolphinling]

Mozilla renders more accurately and has better features than IE, but runs slower...

MOZILLA IS NOT SLOWER THAN IE!!!

Mozilla startup takes more time than IE, IF and only if you don't consider the time it takes to start IE at system startup. Other than that, Mozilla, and Firefox especially, literally kick the pants off of IE. There was a wonderful page I found that simply drew images and removed them repeatedly that demonstrated this, IIRC IE took about 10 times as long as Mozilla.

Re:Why wouldn't I want windows to play back videos

[nelsonal]

Because PCs are very versatile, your DVD player is disigned to do a total of perhaps three things (and you do have to install "software" each time you put in a disc happily it is very standardized). Your PC can do many many more, and the things you want to do out of the box, may well be very different from the things I want mine to do out of the box. One of us might want to download music the other rips it. One of us might play FPS, the other wants to play bejeweled and browse slashdot. One of us might work in word processors, the other spreadsheets, and another guy might only want to use a text editor and compier. Each of these tasks requires a special addition to our generic tool, and we might not care about being able to do the things that the other tools allow us to potentially do. That's why you have to install software on your computer, the alternative is buying a task specific computer (a developer workstation, gamer's box, office machine, network terminal, but each of these would require that the seller know all the software you plan to use for the life of the computer.