Microsoft's Longhorn Faces Antitrust Scrutiny

benore writes "The Department of Justice will be reviewing Microsoft's Longhorn product as part of the company's antitrust settlement. One analyst opines that Mircosoft is appearing to soften its image to become kinder and gentler. 'They don't want people to hate them anymore. They've learned from their mistakes.' Hmmm."

Comments

Whats the point ?

[naden]

All third-party browsers e.g. Firefox and media players e.g. Quicktime ask whether you wish to make them the default when they are opened for the first time. So what is a control panel supposed to achieve ? The effort for the user is in the downloading and installing of the third-party software.

The DOJ should be instead insisting that Microsoft bundle third-party alternatives with the OS not just providing a control panel.

How can the US DOJ ...

[twilight30]

'review' a product that hasn't been released yet?

And why is the Yahoo article writer so keen to get opinions from that twit of an analyst Laura DiDio? I'm sure someone else here will point out her lovely work defending SCO ...

Finally, why the hell do I care about this? Oh yeah, that's it: because every single one of my clients continues to use MS. Arrgh.

Re:Too late, Bill

[TheRaven64]

Windows 98 really was a huge mistake. I was happy using NT 4 when it was released. If they had released a Windows NT 4.5 with proper DirectX (not the two-versions-old, and 3D-acceleration-may-work-but-probably-won't version that NT4 had) and with a more friendly device configuration GUI it would have been far more usable than Windows 98. This was even on the MS roadmaps released before Window 95. '95 and NT4 were due to have a single successor. Eventually this emerged as 2000 (I was using it since NT 5 beta 2, and it's not a bad system). Windows ME was a travesty (why did it even need to exist? Windows 2000 was meant to be the upgrade path for '98 users. Instead it just gave game developers an excuse not to support 2K, forcing people to dual boot if they wanted to play games and do real work), and Windows XP is just a whole string of UI mistakes built on top of security holes (many of which come from the Windows 98 era).

I went to Linux, loathed it, went to FreeBSD, liked it, and finally got a Mac.

they might have learned (something)

[da_matta]

I don't think MS should underestimated about learning from their mistakes, they've done it before (both of them). It's also something FOSS circles should be concerned about, because a more humble MS could reduce the amount of interest in the alternatives.

I believe that the arrogant and hostile attitude of MS has been the number one reason corporations and governments have been looking for alternatives, not for example the arquable quality and price of their products. If we for example look at the EU sanctions concerning Media player, I find it hard to believe that anybody was interested in MS hurting the "media player industry" or that there's something wrong with OS including a media player. More likely the EU just wanted to show that they have the political will to confront MS if they don't get the co-operation they want.

Re:Too late, Bill

[JPriest]

Actually most of XP's security problems with RPC, default services in listening state etc. all came from win2k. 98se was a brick wall (remotely) after you dissabled netbios. You could run "netstat -a" and get 0 results, try that on XP, 2K, or even Linux.

You know what

[Phantasmo]

Here's what I'd have liked to see:
Windows XP Professional, at the Home price, shipping with SP2 preinstalled. The product also includes MS Antispyware and MS Antivirus with free updates for the life of Windows XP.
The default install comes locked down - firewall on, IE security cranked up to High, Messenger and other unnecessary services turned off, user accounts are by default Users and not Administrators.
There is no nagging about associating your Windows account with your Passport, and IE will cleanly uninstall with no complaints. Explorer does not treat you like an idiot and lets you navigate into any folder you choose without having to opt in.

Then I would say that Windows is OKAY. So, maybe these antitrust guys can keep Microsoft on its toes and get them to produce an OKAY Windows.

Great insurance against future antitrust stuff: port Office to .Net. Then just say, "Look, our stuff runs on OS X and that Linux thing! Mono!" At least they'll still be selling copies of Office.