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

stinks of hypocrisy

[Anonymous Coward]

Advocates of free software claim to be advocates of freedom. If this were the case, they would only attack Microsoft on those terms. The WMP is not a freedom issue. If a customer doesn't like Windows prepackaged with WMP, there's nothing stopping that person from acquiring another OS.

This is just a bunch of government busibodies telling you how to run your lives.

Re:No wonder everyone's getting outsourced!

[Jameth]

If only is were inferior quality, you might have an argument.

However:

Linux runs faster and more stable than Windows, with more features.

KDE runs faster than Windows with many more features and a better look, although only equally stable.

MPlayer plays back more video types than Windows Media Player, and also is more fault-tolerant, uses less resources, is easier to use, and is more stable.

Mozilla renders more accurately and has better features than IE, but runs slower and doesn't support a few pages (none that I have ever needed to use)

Konqueror runs faster than IE with more features but tends to render worse (sometimes on pages that matter)

The only sticking points are MS-Office and lots o stuff from Adobe and Macromedia (although I am not happy with the rate of improvement in Dreamweaver and Adobe Acrobat is pathetic compared to ghostview, except for a few really complex PDF files)

So, if I were paying an equal price, I would still go with the free software solutions most of the time. The biggest sticking point of all is games, and that is starting to change.

P.S. The economy can go fuck itself, Capitalism is almost as bad as Communism. We need a general revamp.

lame

[pirateprentice]

This is just how European countries practice protectionism without technically violating world trade rulings. How come they've never done anything about the diamond cartel even though people are actually dying over that?? At a time when Linux is doing just fine on its own I can't see why we need this over the top MS conspiracy nonsense.

Re:Why stop with Media Player and MS

[michael_cain]

I think MS should have a baseline windows, for like 50% off retail price maybe, that a user can pick if they want. Unless the user asks for it, I think most people will be willing to pay extra to have everything preinstalled and ready to go. Its all about ease of use, If you know how to use it on your computer you can go just about anywhere else and use it on another, thats what MS provides.

I'm saying that you don't need sarcasm because what you've proposed is almost a viable competitive solution to the MS monopoly problem. Make that baseline Windows available at 50% off the price for whatever class of customer is buying it: 50% off retail for an end user, 50% of the "wholesale" for an OEM, and create a new category of buyer, the software packagers and resellers (give them the OEM price probably). As you point out, most users don't want to have to choose and install all the usual apps. This way they can still buy the bundle -- the only difference is that MS isn't the one deciding which apps to bundle, the individual resellers (and in some cases the end user) are. The consumer still gets complete bundles, but now has a choice between bundles.