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EU Sleuths Think Microsoft Sabotaged Windows

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the evil-empire dept.

Adam Zweimiller writes "The Inquirer is reporting that in it's ongoing battle with Microsoft, the European Commission is investigating the possibility that the Vole has sneakily sabotaged the Media Player-free versions of Windows it is obliged to ship to the EU. A report (subscription required) in today's Wall Street Journal suggests Microsoft has fiddled with the registry in its stripped-down Windows offerings and the result is that video clips embedded into Microsoft Word documents don't run properly, for example."

9 of 786 comments (clear)

  1. At this point ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    if I were Microsoft, I'd pull out of the EU market. It's insane how far the EU is going in this. I'd say, fine ... we're done. Enjoy, and walk away.

    1. Re:At this point ... by mc6809e · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      The whole Euro market is bigger than the US..

      Would be a great boost for Linux though if they did.

      The mere fact that europeans have much less to spend than USians is a great boost for Linux.

      If the European Union were a U.S. state, it would rank forty-seventh in per capita GDP, according to a report from Timbro, a Swedish free-market think tank. (Yes, there really is one.) In annual income the average European is on a par with residents of Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas. (And the report excludes the newer, poorer EU nations of Eastern Europe.) The picture isn't much rosier even in wealthier European states like France and Britain, both of which have per capita GDPs slightly lower than Alabama's. Only tiny Luxembourg scores better than the American average. The United States' material advantage extends beyond income: Americans spend 77 percent more annually than Europeans, own more appliances, and (presumably thanks to our wide open spaces) have homes providing, on average, 721 square feet per person--nearly twice the average size of European residences. The study's authors allow that fast-growing GDP is "not the be all and end all of happiness and prosperity," citing more "intangible" (and quintessentially European) factors such as equality, leisure time, and the environment. But they note, with a defensiveness undoubtedly endemic among Swedish free-marketeers, that "material resources" are a "precondition of much of the wellbeing which people like to call intangible."

    2. Re:At this point ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      The mere fact that you used the word "USians" ought to get you shot, twice. "US" is a fucking acronym, you can't use a fucking acronym to make a fucking new word without getting shot. For fuck's sake, use the fucking word "American" just like the rest of us non-idiots. Sheesh!

  2. Re:They "think" it was "sabotaged" ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Oh Dear

    Well you will run squishie windBloZe wont you Real works perfectly here and no unwanteds use a PROPER OS can the bloZe end your problems in an instant .

    Fred Quimbey

  3. Old Europe, a beaten people. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait


    The fact that the parent post is modded Troll proves that Europeans in general are very thin-skinned.

    The inability to handle simple criticism is the mark of a failing empire (or empires).

    Europeans are a beaten people.

  4. Let me get this straight... by Anita+Coney · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The EU wanted Microsoft to remove all video players from Windows. Now the EU is complaining that video doesn't play.

    Oh, I get it. You guys are simply fucking with Microsoft. Sort of like a kid pulling the wings off a fly. Funny stuff your bureaucrats do over there!

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  5. rabble rabble rabble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    rabble rabble rabble, [insert anit-MS remark] rabble rabble, [point finger at MS]. Seriously tho, the MS is so evil conversations are getting old, how are "duuude MS is soo evil" topics modded "insightfull? it wasnt insightfull the first 5000 times it was on /.

  6. So this is the state of Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    In the other article we have a bunch of people kissing Steve Jobs' ass. In this one we have a bunch of people kissing Bill Gates' ass.

  7. Re:Microsoft's Twinkie Defense by spectecjr · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Depends on the DLL doesn't it? If for example the DLL couples a DOM and ECMAScript implementation to the oeprating system, in detriment to existing competing implementations, I'd say the judge is justified.

    Yeah, but you're a kneejerk anti-Microsoft bigot and not a software developer.

    You can't have it both ways - either they remove everything, and other apps break, and you complain that they're doing it to spite the judge, or they just remove the IExplore.exe shell and leave the rest in, don't break anything, and then they're in "unfair competition" with rival DLLs.

    Clue for you: People used to sell TCPIP implementations for Windows. There were lots of "existing competing implementations". The idea of not having TCPIP built in today is ludicrous. But it flies in the face of your idea of "detrimental to existing competing implementations" - and a good thing too, because it's sound engineering practice, good for consumers, and is expected in a modern OS.

    --
    Coming soon - pyrogyra