Slashdot Mirror
Real And Microsoft Close to Settlement
pdirty writes "Real networks may be close to winning a $750 million settlement agreement with Microsoft following Real's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. The deal would include Microsoft paying cash as well as advertising for Real services, and products through channels such as MSN. Real is holding a conference call after the closing bell today to announce the details." From the article: "The deal follows on the heels of the European Commission appointing a watchdog last week to monitor Microsoft's compliance with its antitrust ruling. The pact is the latest in a string of payments by Microsoft to settle charges, including $750 million in 2003 to Time Warner to end charges about Microsoft acting to suppress Netscape, and $1.95 billion to Sun Microsystems to settle a suit by Sun over Microsoft's use of incompatible Java technology."
The press release with details of the deal is here.
Well, maybe it's just me but I thought you could actually uninstall iTunes. (drag and drop to trash)
I also thought Apple weren't a monopoly, but I must be wrong!
http://jogin.com/weblog/archives/2004/02/29/real_o bnoxious
"Unfortunately, playing video streams is only a very small aspect of what Real Player does; Real Player, most prominently, is a small bastard with inferiority complex and delusions of grandeur, not too different from Napoleon. Although Real Player's task is simple and limited to a certain timeframe, Real Player defaults to running at all times, whether its limited functionality is needed or not, and claims a seat for itself in the throne commonly called the systray.
When you install Real Player, you can either choose an express install, or custom install. If you pick express install, Real Player simply installs itself with every option and feature turned on. If you choose the custom install, the process is a blend between an installer and a Pokemon-like game of gotta-uncheck-all-checkboxes."
couldn't have said it better
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The problem was that Real wanted to PAY to advertise on MSN and MS said no. It was not free exposure they were after.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
incompatible java technology? how the fuck did they manage that?
...by shipping a Microsoft created JVM that intentionally broke the java standard.
Thanks to the BBC using Real Player for it's streaming media I have Real Player installed, but also thanks to the license fee for the BBC I get Real Player sans everything else for free, so no ads, no other crappy software, just real player. Still not great, and I'd prefer something else, but it's better than download Real Player from real.com as the basic edition
Most Linux distros include XMMS, and nobody cries.
When it comes to packages, Microsoft is either Microsoft-centric, or just plain lacking.
Most Linux distros include a number of media players. For instance, my SuSE 9.3 install DVD included xmms, amarok, mplayer, kaffeine, totem, xine, etc. Many from different organizations/vendors/projects, etc.
Microsoft Windows ships with Microsoft Media Player. Period.
Most Linux distros include numerous text/document/office editors. Again, SuSE 9.3 ships with OpenOffice, AbiWord, KOffice, a zillion text editors, etc.
Microsoft Windows ships with Microsoft Notepad and Microsoft Wordpad. No office suite is included, and the one recommended is (no surprise) Microsoft Office.
The reason why nobody cries foul about distros shipping AppX is because there's generally AppY and AppZ bundled with it too. That's not to say that Microsoft should have to ship RealPlayer, or Mozilla, or whatever. It just explains why those used to modern Linux distros often feel that Microsoft is rather limiting in its offerings.
First you have to turn yourself into a conceptual construct known as a corporation. You can't just incorporate yourself (ie: no hackstraw inc. or something). No no. You have to become a nebulous concept of greed and corruption in the eyes of the public and a nebulous concept of capitalism-at-its-finest in the eyes of the legal system. You're unable to vote, but you are allowed to give lots of money to parties for use in elections AND you can lobby until your toes bleed. I should also mention that you need to have lots of money. Those guys at the top aren't going to give a shit about you if you don't have at least 4 mansions and a gold toilet or 2.
After that, just do whatever you want. It's all cake after that. Get in trouble? Buy your way out of it. If that doesn't work, well, tough, all they're going to do is fine you anyway, which is essentially the same as buying your way out of trouble, but it's more official and publicly accepted. And then you're home free.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Real_Alternati ve [videohelp.com]
it works with media player classic for playing real streams. I haven't fired it up on my new hard drive yet, but it worked (hid the buffering message, but i suspect it may have been at 33%)
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
It only took me two clicks and 10 seconds to download the free version. Granted, on the second page the link for the free version is not nearly as noticeable as the big "Download Now" button for the PLUS version, but it says right above the button that it's a link for the PLUS version, and right below that it costs $20, so if you clicked on that and got rerouted, I wouldn't blame Real.
I agree about not needing the proprietary format though. I really hate finding sites that only have audio/video clips playable in Real's player.
At least there's always RealAlternative to play Real video, using Mediaplayer Classic... No questionable taskbar junk, no shady installer, no RealPlayer. You'll never look back.
In this country, since when does company X HAVE to render services to company Y. As far as I have ever seen a business can refuse service to anyone they please for any reason, so long as it is not the WRONG reason. The wrong reasons being discrimination (i.e. color, race, gender). Hell, we refuse to help our competitors...and frankly our competitors are not putting spyware on our clients computers.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I really like realplay *helix* out of all the ones out there. It is the only player that natively supports my OS *linux/freebsd* Quicktime and h.264 are great and wonderful but I am not important enough to support!
There is no place like 127.0.0.1
Honestly, I can only say good things about the free RealPlayer V10. I see many people shooting on Real, but it seems most of them are talking about Real's old players (I can remember someone telling his experience back in 98...) and never took a peak at recent versions of RealPlayer. Yes, previous versions was a pain in the ass, but that changed a lot since then.
Some features I particulary enjoy:
Luís Brás
Microsoft didn't force anything. This entire argument is bogus bullshit. Real had OEM agreements with virtually every PC manufacturer. Every consumer Dell and Compaq shipped in the past 6-8 years have included Real Player. Real had plenty of exposure. Real simply has a shitty fucking product which is slow, bloated, full of spyware, and is grainy and ugly. Real sunk Real. Real was hurting long before WMP. Real blows ass, and that's all there is to it.
MS is legally known as a "de facto" monopoly, and this was verified in various courts. Did you think, after all those trials for Microsoft's monopoly abuse, that nobody thought of Apple or Linux until you just now?
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
What? Real doesn't force DRM down your throat at all. Let alone at every turn like Microsoft. How is that not better?
Yes, it's harder to install because Real isn't Microsoft. Microsoft uses their monopoly to bundle their media player with the OS, and use Windows Update to install updates to the media player. Something Real can't possibly do. Hence the lawsuit for Microsoft abusing their monopoly.
As for bloat, you're just completely wrong. WMP9/10 eat up huge ammounts of resources for no good reason. It may load-up quickly because there's no way to disable it's built-in "quick launch" feature, unlike Real.
How many years ago was RealOne discontinued? Have you really never used anything since? The Helix player has been a monumental improvement over their old players.
This is ridiculous. Any MPEG-4 codec can playback files created with any other. The old problem has been the various fourccs, but any remotely recent version of Divx/Xvid will just simply play them all. Quicktime's and Microsoft's are slightly different only because of the container, not because of the codec. Try playing MP3 in an ASF/MOV container and see how compatible MP3 is...
Besides, it really, really doesn't matter that there are lots of different things called MPEG-4 that are slighty different. Why should it? Quicktime plays back quicktime files. WMP plays back WMP files. What codecs they are using don't matter at all.
I would also just like to congratulate you for managing to get a completely uninformative, uninsightful post modded up to +5.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant