Microsoft Won't Appeal EU Ruling

Ec|ipse writes "Microsoft has decided not to appeal the European court order to implement antitrust sanctions, Instead, Microsoft hopes to win their main appeal that they (Microsoft) had abused their software dominance."

Comments

Heh

[WillerZ]

Probably realised the lawyers would cost more than the fines.

Re:Heh

[bonch]

As if Microsoft cares. They're happy to pay lawyer's fees if it saves them face. I think they must've recognized that in some way, they simply would not win and that their money is better-spent on some different campaign. Expect them to publicly play "oppressed victim of the EU" soon.

Re:Heh

[ischorr]

What makes you think that IE 7 won't simply be a "patched version of IE 6"?

I don't doubt that regardless of Firefox's emergence as a hotshot browser, Microsoft would not have been providing a browser in Longhorn with particularly new or innovative functionality, but it'd be odd for the marketing droids to allow IE to retain the "IE 6" moniker. Instead, I'd expect it to be named "IE NG" (next-generation) or something similar, after they'd revamped it with an Avalon interface (or something)?

It's a shame

[SCHecklerX]

That nothing was really done to a company that was found guilty of abusing its monopoly power

Microsoft are criminals. Nobody should be doing business with them.

Re:It's a shame

[Greyfox]

IBM got bitch slapped for their abuses of their monopoly status. One of the reasons they couldn't market OS/2 effectively was because they were being so careful not to violate the terms of their agreement with the DOJ. Among other things, they were not allowed to announce products or features of products prior to the release of the product. If Microsoft were to be put under the restrictions that IBM was, we wouldn't hear anything out of them for the next two decades, because all of their current advertising methods would be in violation of the agreement.

IBM is no longer the monopolist it once was, in large part because of the punishment they suffered for abusing their position. I don't think you could say the same of Microsoft. And I'm sure that Bill can accumulate the amount of the fine by simply going through the couches at his mansion.

We could take a page from their marketing department though. Linus should announce a huge list of features for the 2.7/2.8 kernel series. If they don't all make it in, he can just announce that they've just been "delayed" until the "Linux Longhorn" release in 2020. Heh heh heh...

MicroSoft

[kerby74]

But.... Longhorn will fix all this, we promise.

Nah, most probably

[DJPaddy]

...They are afraid that some of the people in court might be reading slashdot, and saw yesterday's Ballmer ad, so they decided to abandon the case until this is forgotten. After all nobody wants to be laughed by a federal judge.

*eyebrow raising*

[TechnologyX]

Seems like they might have something up their sleeve.

It would be nice to see them have to strip WMP and IE out of Windows, or at least preload Firefox and Opera on Windows along with IE. My friend just recently was ranting about "WHY in GODS NAME do I need to have Windows Media Player EMBEDDED into my server??"*

*Disclaimer: I've never used any Windows based servers, and I haven't used Windows period since 1999, so I don't know if you can pull WMP out or anything.

Re:*eyebrow raising*

[TheRealMindChild]

Its called code reuse. Not done well, mind you, but MANY MANY linux distributions have the EXACT same problem.

Take WMP for instance. It is really just a front end to the Windows Media API. Funny thing is, to install this arguably essential component of windows, Media PLayer comes with the package. They also do this for MAPI... thats why you get Outlook Express.

In a nutshell, Windows started out as a bunch of tech demos for the underlying technology. Now Microsoft is developing the "Proof of concept" mini-apps into full fledged applications.

P.S. Before the grammar nzi's strike, I do know that my spelling and grammar have a lot to be desired.

Who get the $$$ from the fine?

[Ironsides]

I'm currious here, who get the 497 million euro fine? The EU or charities or who?

Media Player link

[CPUgrind]

So now when a link to a media file is clicked instead of opening Windows Media Player, Windows will probably open a Web Browser to download Windows Medial Player.

A good move by MS

[oconnorcjo]

I think MS is playing this smart. It is better for them to cooperate now and hope to kill the monetary penalty than to say "We will fight to keep Windows the way we want it!". I know they want to use WMP to take over another market but to INSIST that it must stay would just piss too many important people off. Better to fold on this and just keep WMP an easy free download and continue to pursue the strategy of convincing content providers that using WMP formats is the way to go.

I am in no way condoning or approving MS business tactics. I am only judging the merits of the effectiveness of such strategies.

My own perspective is that a music/video utility should be bundled with all OS's but that WMP is evil because it is being used to promote Microsoft's proprietary sound and video formats. MS is again relying on thier tried and true tactics of "embrace and extend".

But since the EU "picked up" on this theme it is bettor for MS to be a little more "low key" with this strategy than be arogant about it. It seems MS is grown a little wiser since the AntiTrust trial in the USA (despite winning it).

Re:Software dominance?

[netsavior]

Their "dominance" will wither away, and quickly, if they don't start doing something about security issues.

That's like saying the U.S. is going to start to lose population quickly if they don't do something about their Medical Care or Foreign Policy. Sure Canada might have a lower crime rate and better medical care, but people just aren't willing to move away from a life that is warm, familiar, easy, etc.

No matter what happens to windows, users will probably never switch, and certainly not "Quickly" (speaking in terms of a percentage)

Re:Why media player?

[oconnorcjo]

What I want is to be able to remove Media Player, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express.

These three are just security holes.

They are just three SYMPTOMS of one security hole and that security hole is called ActiveX. If Microsoft was REAL serious about security in Longhorn, ActiveX would be rewritten with security in mind. Anything that is "ActiveX aware" can reformat your hard drive and more. These things include MS Office, IE, Outlook Express, Outlook, WMP, and the list goes on. COM/OLE objects are great but having a web site be able to run/install a com object onto a machine from IE is INSANE!!!! Somebody at Microsoft should have asked "what is to stop someone from abusing this technology?" and then decided not to implement it because they did not have a good answer to that question. If it was not for the lack of security in ActiveX technologies, MS security would not be so abismally shoddy.