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EU Fines Microsoft $613 Million, Officially
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by CNN.com, the European Union has hit Microsoft with a record US$613 million fine after a five-year investigation, finding the company guilty of abusing the 'near-monopoly' of the Windows operating system. Microsoft has been given 90 days to make a European version of Windows available without a media player and 120 days to give programming codes to rivals in the server market to allow 'full interoperability' with desktops running Windows. Microsoft plans to appeal the decision." Other readers point to coverage at
the BBC, ZDNet, Reuters (here carried by Yahoo!), and abc.au.net.
Switch to Linux today!!! You'll still get lots of extra free stuff you don't want or need, so switch NOW!!!
...and so on.
Both MS and big tobacco were doing just fine after November '04. Seriously, look at the stocks and see who turned upward when it was becoming clear just who we'd have in the whitehouse.
If the election had gone the other way, MS would have actually been punished, and RJ Reynolds and friends would be labeling cigarettes as drugs and paying for people's efforts to quit smoking.
Congratulations on getting a well paid job. However, learning how to be humble and modest would go a long way. Did you really need to throw the actual number in? That's boasting and showing off, and not an admirable trait. Now go to MSFT and have a good time. I know many good people there who are very smart... you'll soon learn to lose the attitude ;)
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
*grin*
I had a 435 day uptime on my router.. I even transplanted it from one house to another (20 minute drive) by doubling up the UPS's on it.
Sadly I decided I'd upgrade the kernel and that, unfortunately, necessitated a reboot.
Most name brand computers do come bundled with alot of software. Every time I use my recovery CD on my Compaq laptop I have to spend at least an hour uninstalling tons of bundled non-microsoft software that quite simply sucks. Most of this is stuff like online services and real player. I have started to keep real player because so many sites use it and the newer versions are intrusive to the point of being unusable. I have heard (and believe) that Microsoft engages in these practices but I personally think their prevalence and impact have been vastly overblown.
Netscape didn't fail because of Internet Explorer. Netscape failed because it took (and still does take) 40 seconds to load as opposed to IE or Opera which load much faster. Real Networks will not fail because of Microsoft, they will fail because they are a sleazy company with a product which has advanced more in its capabilities to deliver ads than in its features and interface. Both of those companies spent too much time complaining, and not enough time improveing. If you don't like Microsoft's software you can just download something else and use it instead, thanks to the fact that Internet Explorer comes bundled with Windows. I actually tried to find a media player that was better for video than Windows Media Player but simply wasn't able to. For mp3s on the other hand Winamp kicks kicks Media Player's (and the llama's) ass and so you can find it installed on many computers. IMO it is actually quite simple to beat Microsoft; just make a better product. Opera was founded after the "browser wars". In a time when every computer already came with a web browser built in they asked people do pay for one or put up with an advertisement in the corner. While they don't have a huge market share they are a successful company. To my knowledge Opera has never publicly complained about Microsoft's practices.
bit trollent