Slashdot Mirror
EU Sleuths Think Microsoft Sabotaged Windows
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."
we all know Microsoft would never try and trick people into letting them get away with shutting out the competition...
...guys?
Take off every sig. For great justice.
I can easily say without any evidence that they tampered with IE too. There's something wrong with ActiveX...
Microsoft sabotaging Windows? No.
.... a definte YES.
Held Windows at gunpoint, danced around with it in front of the authorities, kicked it in the guts a few times, teased everyone by saying "you'll never get me!", and waged a decade-long seige
And if they call bad coding "sabotage", well that's an interesting parallel universe they live in then.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Manager: Take that media player out of your operating system.
Me: ok
Manager: Why don't these media clips play anymore?
What I'd like to say: Cause you're a fucking idiot. And you told me to take it out, which I did. So go fuck yourself, and stop telling me how to do my job.
Microsoft ships out buggy code after a fight with the EU: people complain that they're intentionally sabotaging their code in retaliation.
Please people, just pick one conspiracy theory and stick with it...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
how this affects clippy or MS Bob.
Say hello to my little sig.
I'm reminded of a quote from an arms dealer in a Chevy Chase movie: "Whoever wins, we win. Whoever loses...we win".
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Customized Windows Media-less version of Windows fails to play Windows Media correctly!
Microsoft sabotaging their own code? Isn't that a little redundant? Just release security patches for the stripped-down version six months after the full version gets them.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
My professor bitched when the printed out version's video wouldnt play.
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2384
In this case, it should read: "Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to both incompetence and malice."
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
I've always thought their Basic was rather good.
I think a very high percentage of word documents are never printed. People send them via email as attachments. And if you hunted these people down and killed them, the courts would say it was you who did something wrong, even if they embedded a video in the attached word document! Strange, but true.
Loose lips lose spit.
Windows XP Without Media Player
Windows XP Media Player Free
Windows XP with an executable deleted
Windows XP MPFree :D
Windows XP Click here to download Media Player
Windows XP WOMP Version
Win And Media Player Seperated (WINAMPS for short)
What did M$ call it in the end?
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
Well, what Word should do, according to the Microsoft developer documentation everybody else is supposed to read and follow, is use COM to request an object implementing the Media Player interface, and then make calls on that object to play media. As long as the underlying provider implements the complete interface as documented, the calling application isn't supposed to have to care exactly what the underlying provider is. This is, again according to Microsoft, exactly what COM is supposed to be for: allowing applications to use an interface without worrying about who's providing the implementation of that interface.
Obviously if I don't have anything implementing the Media Player COM interface installed applications will fail trying to get an instance of that interface, but if I install say RealPlayer that correctly implements the documented Media Player COM interface then applications trying to play media should succeed (modulo supported codecs) and the media should play without problems.
If COM (in it's latest naming) is good enough for Microsoft to tell the rest of the world to use it for this purpose, why isn't it good enough for Microsoft to use it as well?
I bet he's a Harry Potter fan.
Never attribute to incompetence that which can be attributed to Microsoft.
If it was a pipe, wouldn't it be F|?
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
video clips embedded into Microsoft Word documents don't run properly, for example
No, I'd call that a bugfix.
"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."
Nah that's just Windows. *nothing* works properly.
I wouldn't install it if I had a signed afidavit from the CEO saying it won't call home or resist uninstallation, distills whiskey and prints $100 notes.
Of course not, because then you'd have the Secret Service after you...
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
I wouldn't install it if I had a signed afidavit from the CEO saying it won't call home or resist uninstallation, distills whiskey and prints $100 notes.
Um... what *kind* of whiskey?
English motherfucker, do you speak it?
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
No, that is just because some people think Word is Windows. :) :(
;-)
BTW, that is not a joke, I work in tech support.
No kidding... Wish I had mod points for you, but lacking them, I'll give a hearty "me too".
My favorite - I have a never-ending war with spyware at my workplace (don't we all?). OVER HALF of people swear up and down that they don't ever use "the internet". Now, a few I expect just lie about it because they think I'll get them in trouble or something (look at porn all day for all it matters to me - Do your job, don't make extra work for me, and don't get me sued, and I really couldn't care less what you do on-line).
I realized after a while what this really meant, when immediately after (sincerely) telling my she never used the internet, one coworker wanted to "show me something". She then opened "My Computer" and proceeded to type a URL (badly formed, but good enough to work) into the address bar.
Totally blew me away - I never would have thought that, someone would actually believe that they have "google.com" on "My" Computer!
So, BTW, how did all you Slashdotters get into my computer? Very rude of you not to knock, you know... And stop stalking me! I notice you on my computer at home, too!
EU: "MS, give us an OS without the media player"
MS: "Ok. Here you go."
EU: "Why doesn't this app that relies on the media player API work anymore?"
MS: "Because you made us remove the media player."