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Microsoft Windows XP N Flops
ChocLinux writes "Dell, Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens have announced they have no plans to pre-install Windows XP N, the version of Windows without a bundled media player that Microsoft released to comply with the European Commission antitrust ruling. It is now almost six months since Microsoft released Windows XP N, and the fact that no-one wants to sell it suggests that this antitrust case may be going the way of the US one. Also, the article raises the question - now that RealNetworks has settled with Microsoft, will anyone bother to complain about this? Of course there's a chance that the EC might bring a new antitrust case against Microsoft, but how much more effective is that likely to be?"
Why didn't the European Union actually solve the problem, by forcing Microsoft to open up Windows Media Video? I think that would be fair instead of unbundling it like this. It does not solve anything, and people who get XP N, will end up installing WMP anyway.
Oh, and what about the 'real monopoly' in Windows? It is also known as Internet Explorer, and only God knows why EU did not do anything about that when they were at it.
Dvorak on Doomtech
Who didn't see that coming like a mile away? Windows XP N is a hard sell to say the least. Not only does it cost exactly the same amount of money as regular Windows XP, you will probably also get more support calls from angry costumers who say something along the lines of "why isn't video working".
________
Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
... and it flopped. *Big* surprise.
Go somewhere random
/. chose to ignore: /. for the sake of starting a flamewar of course didn't mention anything else.
MS having to offer a version of XP without the media player preinstalled isn't the only outcome of the antitrust case and certainly isn't the most important part, yet
First off, people should be aware that MS was also fined 500 million euros, quite a lot of money, wouldn't you agree.
Second, and probably most important, the EU found that MS is on pupose hindering interoperability between its products and third party products. In essence, they use their monopoly on the desktop, to also sell server software. To counter this MS now has to disclose technical information to its competitors to enable them to compete on an equal footing.
Now of course MS is trying to give out as little information as possible, but they don't seem to get by with this tactic, which is of course a good thing.
Third, about the media player. I don't think it's that important if companies actually sell the version without the media player, what is important is the fact that it is now clear that bundling more and more desktop apps in order to utilize a monopoly in one area to get market share in an other one is a no-no.
I suppose there would be no appreciable mass market for a version of windows without IE either.
It would be nice if one these courts acted with clue and actually addressed the problem and not the symptom. Can you imagine if the AT&T ruling had been "offer phone service without long distance"? Instead, a court with balls actually broke up the old company and prevented the "parent" from competing in the market they had abused.
Yes, I know that's a gloss/simplification, but the point is that structural wrongs require structural remedies.
The real problem is the legions of lazy users that don't bother downloading alternative software. Everyone I know (even my parents, that are far from tech-savvy) are fully aware that there are alternatives out there. They just don't bother anyway. Should we really ship a completely stripped skeleton of an operating system? That's the alternative to bundling software with an OS. /lars
Also, the article raises the question - now that RealNetworks has settled with Microsoft, will anyone bother to complain about this?
Complain about what?? Is Microsoft to be blamed for companies refusing the carry Windows XP-N? Sometimes I wonder why submissions are worded just to make it through the Slashdot Editors.
I have also wondered why a company should be penalized for including a web-browser and a multimedia player. Every modern OS has one built in. But then, it could be just my biased viewpoint.
Life is just a conviction.
Managed to get a copy off of MSDN but have yet to install it on ANY machines,
This just makes an easy out for Microsoft in the future. Now they have the excuse that their partners will not sell equipment without the bundled software (IE, WMP, etc.).
The only possible upside is that this could lead to a stronger argument for allowing the user to actually choose their own OS instead of just between the Home and Pro version of Windows.
What am I thinking? Then the manufacturers would actually have to hire tech support staff to help with more than just Windows. Yeah, that's gonna happen.
One small step of Europe towards capitalism one giant flame war for /.
vote with their wallets, if they are unsatisfied with microsoft's product just quit buying it & switch to a viable alternative = GNU/Linux --works-for-me, i dont even have Windows installed on any of the four computers on my LAN, 2 have Slackware & KDE and 2 have Ubuntu & Gnome, i even took all my Windows CDs (Win98&2k & Office97/2k) packed em in a shoebox and put em up in the attic...
once enough people do what i did microsoft will get the picture...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Clearly, forcing a company todo/not todo something to increase competion isn't going to work. Ever. Especially since Operating System integration is *good* thing. It's a better user experience to have software as seamless features of Operating system rather than independent applications.
So we have customers who don't want the less-integrated version and a vendor who doesn't do a honest effort marketing the less-integrated version. And bureacrats are suprised? shees..
The only proper way to deal with monopolies is to split them. Everything else is just bullshit.
If there where a "Microsoft 1" and "Microsoft 2", both with rights to sell current windows versions, Dell, Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens would actually have vendors to choose from. And there could be real honest effort to compete and differentiate..
They should attack contracts between Microsoft and manufacturors. All these contracts binding the PC maker to Microsoft OS should be banned.
Then let the market decides which is the best OS. If it is still windows so be it. It simply means that the competitors aren't smarter than the competition from the 80's. When you have a competitive platform crippled with some many security flaws and PC maker free from any exclusivity, it must do the trick otherwise they are simply really bad at business.
Nobody knows how the PC market will involve technically in the upcoming years. But I guess that all OS should have a decent suite of multimedia softwares so clearly it is Microsoft's right to propose one.
For the little story:
I know that the EU commission has an open source plan internally (force subcontractors to code only under an open source license, etc.). It has been discussed for years (first time I've seen it, it was in 2000). It hasn't been implemented yet and worst it isn't part of their call of tenders requirements for web based applications on their Intranet/extranet.
Olivier
...when Apple bundle their internet browser (Safari) with Mac OS X no-one threatens an anti-trust case, but when Microsoft bundle their internet browser (IE) with Windows, everyone's up in arms...
VC-1 is the name given collectively to the WMV/WMA 9 codecs and it's an open, licensed standard just like MPEG-4 or MPEG-2. It's controlled by SMPTE, so MS can't modify the standard without their approval, and license fees are fixed (same thing as MPEG).
Also what's this IE monopoly you speak of? I'm using Firefox right now in Windows, works great. Windows seems to do nothing to stop it form working, and indeed will make it the default browser, if asked to.
force MS to only sell WinXP-N on the european market,
;)
this would help third party devellopers a bit too.
but what they will rule when ReactOS XP is released
If Microsoft is such a monopoly, why does my (NL) government only provide for a Windows application to fill in my tax forms? 2 years down the lane and they are finally building an Apple version as well. Why have I (and the company I work for) received many documents that can only be viewed by Microsoft software. Thank god most information folders are formatted using Adobe. To get back to the Media Player issue; you would have to install it anyway, since almost all the broadcasts of the (public) TV network are either Real or MS formatted, and Real is not a real option.
I would certainly choose it if I were to buy an XP licence since I really do not want the Windows Media Player. Why? Well, because it just isn't any good. It is a sluggish resource hog and where I run Windows it has been replaced by alternatives that are much faster and less prone to crash.
Do the arithmetic. A fine of 500 million euros sounds a lot, but it is a small price to pay when you are making $12 billion in net profits per year and can drag out a case for a good three years meanwhile doing exactly what you want to. Besides, when you make allowances for investment income and inflation, that 500 million shrinks to a smaller figure.
The really important point is #3, interoperability with other platforms. Naturally MS are holding out on this one too. It's likely to become even more important if webservices take off because with their OS Microsoft can act as a choke point between every provider and every end-user.
Microsoft are acting in a predictable way. They are a monolopy, and the way to continue with your monopoly rents is to fight every case with every method available right on until the bitter end. Do the arithmetic. It's a no-brainer. Only jail-time and billions in fines would make a difference.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
Fails to convince me. They would if they so needed. But why would anyone with a sane mind buy something less for the same price of something more ?
That's not really a surprise. For home-users, having media player is almost a requirement. A media-player-less windows would be much more suitable in a business environment. But unfortunately, XP N is based on XP Home, which is not usable in a corporate network. Besides, both the XP and XP N versions costing exactly the same makes XP N less interesting. The only ones who would be happy with people paying the same for less, would be Real etc.
.sig: No such file or directory
but my Laptop from Dell (Year and a half old) already CAME With RealPlayer, Dell's own Media Center like interface, and DVD Player software. The OEM's have always been free to bundle whatever media player software they want to with Windows.
Had they dropped the N version price even a few euros below the 'normal' OEM, it would've been a surefire hit. Nobody wants to pay for medial player.
But since there was no price difference, this thing was DOA. Everyone knew it the moment it was announced.
So Steve Ballmer not only has a Slashdot login, he also has mod points!
Why not just make it an optional part of the Windows installation process? Or for pre-built machines, allow the user to optionally install it when they first set up windows.
Cress, cress, lovely lovely cress
We will see version 2 of Steve's monkeydance soon?
-- Cheers!
Come on, people. Don't pretend stupidity.
... Tenaga, in my case. Respectively your utility company. Ridiculous; of course. Now apply this to computing. Fortunately, TCP/IP is not proprietary to Microsoft; as everyone will agree.
Nobody ever expected the consumers in Europe to yell for "Windows without Media Player" ! Neither did the commission. They rather took an unworldly bureaucratic way out: Forcing RedMond to *offer* XP without.
Of course, chances are that this will backfire.
But they didn't have the balls to do better; alas.
Personally, I think this is a show at the side. The crucial aspect is, if the EU can force Microsoft to lay the protocols open, for free.
*That* would get us into competition. Just compare phone, electricity.
Imagine, AT&T had had a phone only talking to another AT&T phone. Your power supply only working with
But now apply this to other protocols: MAPI-Exchange. When your Siemens works and talks to AT&T, why does Microsoft not need to open all their APIs to make Sylpheed talk to the Exchange server just as well ? OpenBSD to AD (if Theo so desires, of course) ?
The current state is not a monopoly, it is quite something more. It is non-interoperability on purpose.
Don't tell me that's wrong. It isn't. I am sitting on a monopoly ISP, Streamyx. There is no alternative. (But to *not* connect.) Though, my monopoly ISP permits me to connect to the Internet, which is something. Otherwise I couldn't write this comment to be seen by you.
Whereas Microsoft tries to render their formats non-interoperable. Some Word document doesn't show properly on my screen. That's nothing to do with a monopoly. A monopoly would be that I can't buy anything but Microsoft in a place. Bush might want to like to decide so.
who thought of megacomputers when he read the subject?
Come on: when you read "N Flops", it is about floating point arithmetic, right?
Wouldn't we come under fire for having iLife with iTunes, and Quicktime bundled on our OS?
"Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
Unless you are using mplayer or Real that third party player you installed is probably a wrapper around the windows media framework, Want to use Premiere? You're going to need WM. Want to use Zoom player? It's wrapped around DirectShow - no Windows Media player, no directshow. No directshow most third party players won't work nor will many games.
microsoft bashing? are you serious? THEY WERE FINED HALF A BILLION EUROS (~1 BILLION DOLLARS) by a government that can see through MS's bullshit. this isn't some arbitrary "ms is evil" /. thread, MS was found *guilty* and has to pay half a billion euros, sell xp without wmp, and open up its interfaces.
Although the retail price of XP N and the standard XP may be identical to you and me, it could be possible that Microsoft are offering the standard XP at a lower price than XP N to the major OEM's, in order to keep people using Media Player...?
There is a huge difference: You can just drag those to the trash can and they're gone. I'm not sure of this, but I'll bet WMP is bundled just as much as IE is (I haven't *used* used Windows for a very long time... every once and I while I have to at school, though >:( )
Why not go after these Dell, Lenovo, etc for only selling wintel machines?
I want a laptop but I don't want to be told what processor or OS I should run. Shouldn't I be able to determine that?
So if the distributors don't want to embrace openness the solution isn't to excuse Microsofts evil deeds, it's to continue punishing those that would abuse their position in the market to continue a train of vendor lockin.
One day laptop parts will be like desktop parts, e.g. go to the store and get a standard 15" laptop "Shell", snap on a standard 15" LCD, put in a motherboard of your choosing, etc... One day. Sadly nowhere in the near future... But when that happens I'll be uber happy.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Actually I'd say Apple should come under fire for locking users into MacOS. I bought a computer not an OS. I want to run whatever I want on my Mac.
:-)
Installing things like "yaboot" on a MacMini can be really dangerous. Following the instructions to the T I ended up with a MacMini that I couldn't boot, boot from CD, etc [the lack of a BIOS is really annoying btw]. Fortunately I bought the thing at Best Buy and they allowed me to return a "non booting box"
Point is, Apple is just as guilty as say Dell for forcing users to use one particular OS.
I bought a ***COMPUTER*** not a MacOS box.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Remember, Windows Media Player isn't just the application; it's all the codecs included with the application and the underlying WMPlayer framework within the OS.
With that in mind, why would any computer manufacturer which sells Windows systems, and caters to the home market, want to sell a crippled version of Windows, which can't even play a CD?
IMO this is very much a non-story and a whole lot of fuss over nothing; Microsoft have done what is required of them, at least in terms of the WMP-less version of Windows. Consequently, the PC builders have - not surprisingly - decided to vote with their feet and will continue to sell Windows XP with the integrated Media Player.
If we're wanting to discuss Microsoft's lack of compliance when it comes to opening up the standards as specified in the EU rulings, that's an entirely different matter. But it's also an entirely different topic of conversation which can no doubt be covered when the topic re-appears on Slashdot at some point in the future.
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
I think the reason Apple isn't catching hell for bundling all manner of things with their computers these days is the simple fact that if they didn't, no one would be writing these apps.
That's a gross simplification of where the Mac market is (and was back when Apple decided to assimilate SoundJam and spit it out again as iTunes), but I think essentially true. When you bring an iMac home - that lovely Bondi Blue baby all the way through to the current iMac G5 with iSight - you expect this thing to do something. After all, whenever you bought a Gateway or a Dell it had all manner of goofy apps designed to print, view photos, edit little movies, play music, etc. During the OS8/9 you had to tweak, fiddle and install apps to do cool stuff. A bit of a pain for most people.
Since then, vendors have lagged in releasing apps for the latest and greatest MacOS offerings ... and Apple suffered greatly from the Application Gap between themselves and Windows.
Think independent. Why the hell would Steve want to be continually in the power of Adobe and Microsoft (to say nothing of Macromedia - heh, now part of Adobe-, Real, Quark and the others)? Apple has nooooo leverage with which to bargain and it's pathetic to have to beg. Soooooo ...
I for one applaud Apple for taking its future into its own hands and writing DAMN good software (or buying and vastly improving) to go along with it's nifty boxes and gorgeous operating system.
The very fact that Apple exist and sell their own operating system means that Microsoft does not have a 'monopoly' on desktop operating systems. Microsoft have the largest share of the market, but that does not make them a monopoly. Similarly, Microsoft were never convicted of being a 'monopoly', which in itself is not illegal, they were convicted of 'monopolistic practices'. Of course, this being slashdot, this comment will simply be ignored, or even modded 'troll'.
I dont know how you managed to bork your mini, but you have the option to buy your Mac from YellowDog, and they are running Linux just fine. Yellow Dog
Dvorak on Doomtech
Nothing has really changed with all this except that the fat-cat lawyers have gotten so much much richer from all of the litigious engagements going on here there and everywhere!!!
Some of me almost wonders if there is "purchase" money floating around whereby someone from MS quite literally purchased and owns someone involved in these countries where they can ensure a successful outcome or at the very least, a trivial one.
Definately something smells rotton in the hills...
Cheers;
All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
What can you not run? Where did you get the expectation that going outside the Apple Distortion Field would be a nice experience? As far as alternative operating systems go that can run on Mac Hardware, it's pretty easy to find out what will and will not run. YelloDog Linux is pretty clear.
What? Which particular OS are you forced to use? We've bought Dell's with Linux at the company I work for. As far as home use goes, I think I heard there is a FreeDOS version so you can put on whatever you wish. Regardless, Dell doesn't force you to do anything if you don't choose to purchase from them. If their selection doesn't suit you, go elsewhere.
No, you bought a MacOS box from a niche company that provides a particular experience with their software/hardware.
"GNU/Linux --works-for-me,"
I like Linux, but here's the problem for most consumers:
1) iTunes doesn't work. Please spare me the whine about how there are alternatives. Nobody cares about them. iTunes has to work.
2) OpenOffice 2.0 is okay, although you'll have to twist some arms.
3) All those cool utilities that come with people's camera won't work.
4) Most printer drivers for those inexpensive new printers won't work.
5) No consumer level photo editing software. And if you say "gimp", I'm going to drive to your house and poke you in the eye
6) None of the millions of little special interest applications won't work.
If all you're doing is browsing the web and writing letters, Linux is fine. But if you have an iPod, or use a digital camera/movie player, you're screwed.
Sorry, but the bar moved for Linux. Office is no longer the hurdle for adoption.
Internet Explorer?????
...build your own notebook.
e .asp?article=articles/archive/c0509/31c09a/31c09a. asp&guid=8211E93568BC44CCBB9A7980FB4250D3
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/articl
Not exactly what you're describing, but it's a start.
It strikes me as the whole world is playing Siedler from Catan. Once a company actually makes it big, with a product that obviously is accepted well by the consumer (sorry, but people would not buy Windows (in the beginning) if it wasn't a good product and help them do things easier than anything else -- point me one business executive who has time to type some 20 commands so he can share it with someone... He'll rather have the option to click something.) it gets attacked from all directions -- but in the end, I think Microsoft is just satisfying the consumer's needs. Everyone wants out-of-the-box solutions. Linux just won't do here (for now). Windows works when you install it on a PC... Simple as that, on a Unix based system you have to goof around for 5 days to find the right friggin drivers not in beta for the latest graphical card. It's a cold harsh reality that too-devoted Linux users won't admit - Microsoft saw the market first, had the cash and positioned itself to where they are now. By adding new features they are simply moving the consumer to be more inclined on buying their solution than to install Linux and have a hard time. The Regular Joe doesn't have time to play around with different config files to set the resolution of the LCD screen... But anyway, by forcing to remove something as "important" as WMP I think the EC is going in the wrong direction, in one that will eventually hurt one thing that matters the most -- the consumer. But that's just my 2 cents...
What? Which particular OS are you forced to use? We've bought Dell's with Linux at the company I work for.
Buy a consumer desktop from Dell without an OS and we'll talk.
On anything considered a "server", you can buy it with linux... but if it's meant for end user, it's windows, or microsoft stops giving them deep discounts.
~W
sig?
But MacOS has far more than a BIOS. It has OpenFirmware. It's like a BIOS except it doesn't require your machine to start up as if it were a processor made in 1982, and its programmable (scriptable)!
I'm a bit shocked you manged to make your Mini unbootable, even installing iffy software. I'm not completely up-to-date, but booting with command-option-N-V held down should have fixed you up. Or perhaps booting with command-option-O-F and typing "reset-nvram" at the prompt.
I take it inserting a CD and holding down C during boot (or just option and selecting the CD from the list) didn't work?
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Apple has even gone as far as saying that windows will run on its future Intel based systems. Don't blame Apple for other developers unwillingness to develop G4/G5 compatible OSs
Ubuntu 5.10 works on PPC hardware, thank you very much. As for creating an unbootable machine, I have wiped more than one Mac HDD, installed Ubuntu, uninstalled Ubuntu and reinstalled OS X with no more trouble than restoring the OS to a Windows laptop. (Because, in the end, I decided that I preferred OS X for what I wanted to do.) However, I disagree fundamentally with your post. Apple are in the business of supplying boxes to run OS X, not vice versa. And Dell does not lock you into an OS unless you want them to support it - which, much as I dislike Dell, seems quite reasonable to me.
Pining for the fjords
> Actually I'd say Apple should come under fire for locking users into MacOS. I bought a computer not an OS. I want to run whatever I want on my Mac.
Actually, you didn't buy an x86 system so theres a lot of stuff you're not going to be able to run on it. Apple is foucused on providing a unique user experience so their system is obviously going to run different than a Dell box would.
I'm using one right now... let's talk.
Vanya's Law: "In any culture without irony, fart jokes will be the highest form of humor."
Little wonder that there is 'no demand'. It is an artificial lack of 'demand'. The demand is there on the customer lever, but micro$ has had tight control by contract of sellers and wholesalers all the way up and and down the channel since the late 1980's. No seller much less wholesaler can sell any micro$ product without corporate say so. Neither can they sell or even negotiate with hardware vendors unless a micro$ bundling agreement is part of the end product. Do not believe me, ask a dealer who is your friend and who will actually talk to you and not parrot some corporate lie. Microsoft has controlled the pc market in this way since the advent of Internet Explorer version 4! Microsoft would ship master copies of its operating environment (when it was not yet an operating system) through its channel to its end retail outlets covered by various licenses and non disclosure agreements. A separate agreement, among many, was that no motherboard sold by a micro$ contracted reseller would be sold to any end user without a microsoft operating environment/system along with it at full retail price no matter what the discount on the motherboard. I know of which I speak and can testify so in any court of law as to what particular retailers who might also be willing to testify in any court of law as to the same. I have been a computer hobbyist for over 20 years and have seen the fall of one monster, IBM, to be replaced by the rise of a greater one whose power has corrupted business and law and society with poisonous ideas that Capone's Mafiosi and Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels would have envied. This combination of a business genius and an
CP/M operating system bought and virtually stolen at the distress price of fifty thousand dollars has come together and perverted a need for the democratization of personal computers into a combination in restraint of trade that has corrupted governments, redefined the languages of the world; and misappropriated common words for their private use on pain of lawsuites financed by a literal black hole of money. This is the power to stop all progress in the so called free world and turn theories of social organization of their heads. Look now to the developing and the socialist worlds as the hope of the free, as the free world is in a process of falling that seems inexorable and unstoppable. Too much money has corrupted and prostituted our society! Too many politicians, our so called 'representatives', do not represent us; and why should they? Too many citizens have paid lip service to the civics classes they have had in schools in the so called free world and take no part in the political process beyond getting their opinions from the last and best financed glitzy media hyped commercial of fluff and nonsense taking the place of sense, self interest, and reason. And what do the people who should be the defenders of progress do about this? They seemingly purposefully avoid mentioning or discussing what is happening all around them. Like this topic. Slashdotters should have been all over the micro$ control of the retailers as the reason for no 'demand'. Instead they intentionally miss the point! Why? Is it that Slashdot's managment is another scared rabbit afraid of the corporate monster. Are they Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's rabbits that run at the first sight of the black mariah? Or is money talking here as well?
>Good or bad, consumers LIKE what Microsoft offers
For a given definition of the word 'like', yes.
my password really is 'stinkypants'
Gentoo built fine on my Mac Mini. It's the boot loader that failed to work. And *all* of the key combos I read about online [none of which were documented by Apple btw] failed to work.
Once the boot loader was installed [and failed to boot linux] the box was hosed. The Mini would always load the bootloader [regardless of whether my gentoo boot cd was in or the OSX install cd] and the keyboard combos failed to persuade it.
That's what I call OS lockin.
At least on the PC it's a simple matter of changing boot order in the BIOS even if the disk is hosed you're not lost.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I do not care what software comes with it. Fedora/debian and may other distros come with TONS of software. But, I can uninstall it. And its not a big deal. I cannot uninstall IE, or WMP. These also pose a security threat. So, not only do I not want the programs there, now I have to maintain them to prevent my machine being hacked. This is what I don't like. If I was able to uninstall it, I would be much more inclined to purchase it.
And, with the way MS works, doesn't anybody think that nobody is buying it because of what MS does? Do you think MS gives dell the same discount on Xp N as they get on XP?
Well, all in all... oh wait, I forgot, Im posting this from linux so I guess I don't have to worry.
Bundled applications are SO not the problem with Microsoft.
This whole fiasco was merely a way of making people think something was 'being done' about the Microsoft problem. Don't look behind the curtain.
The reason this is a flop here is because I cannot buy it. Give the option of this or the normal Windows XP, of course I'd take this one. No way would I want the crappy Windows Media Player given the choice.
Maybe no one sells XP N is beacuse no one really cares if Microsoft puts their software on their operating system except people on Slashdot.
I bought a ***COMPUTER*** not a MacOS box.
No, you bought a product made by Apple. They develop their products as they see fit for their target audience. While you can do what you want with their product, they do not need to support your use case. You need to find a product that meets your needs. It doesn't sound like Apple develops what you are looking for.
The last thing we need is the government telling Apple to waste time and money making their product do things that their target market doesn't care about.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Bo knew exactly the type of stunts MS would pull, e.g. XP-N costing more, running slower, breaking compatibility etc, so he let MS choose a price that they expect a media-less version to be worth.
The sting here, is that if XP-N is not being used, assuming this is not due to a technical issue (which by itself would mean MS has not complied with the court order), then it's lack of take up must be due to MS valuing WMP too low. e.g. If the cost of WinXP-N equals WinXP then WMP must have a value of 0. To demostrate they choose an appropriate value, MS will have to drop the cost of XP-N until there is at least some takeup.
In my view, the EU should haul MS back to court for non-compliance of their order. Although I note the EU may be choosing to hold off doing this until they resolve other issues with MS.
Actually, VC-1 is just the name for the SMPTE-standardized version of the WMV9 and WMV9-Advanced Profile video codec. There isn't any standardized version of WMA (although open source implementations certainly exist).
You're right on the license fees - one can get those from MPEG-LA without having to get approval, or write a check to, Microsoft directly.
My video compression blog
Serious question: where does the 500 million go? P.
I'm QUITE impressed. Seriously. The last I'd heard, Dell had to create what were basically different product lines in order to be able to sell computers with linux, so that they could keep all "Dimensions" and "inspirons" branded as computers that came with windows.
Wow. That's a big leap forward.
sig?
So this is not some wild claim about
Win XP doing "N flops" for some very large N?
Hahaha
When I first read the article I thought "Cool! They've finally come up with a notation for how much Windows slows down you computer."
Man, this is gonna get me Trolled/Flamebated into oblivion, but I can't resist...
Let's change just one tiny word in that sentence, without in any way altering its core meaning, and see what we get:
Interesting, no?
I'm not by any stretch an MS apologist (love Firefox!), I'm just sayin'. Something to think about. Oh, and if someone is a Linux or Mac user, then they're quite clearly not in any way, shape, or form any part of Microsoft's core audiance or "target market".
However, back to the other side of the coin... While MS attempts to make their OS versatile and capable for a wide range of users (because, obviously, it's the profitable thing to do), they also cater greatly to the "ignorant masses" (ignorant as in uneducated), as that's where the money is for them. They're not only practicing vendor lock-in, they are (and have been for years) facilitaing user lock-in as well. Face it, if you're doing anything remotely professional (like the game I'm developing), and using software made for Windows to do the job, it's a massive pain in the ass to switch over to something else. Not to mention that depending on what you're trying to accomplish, you could lose a huge chunk of end-user customers by switching your product over to Mac or Linux for example.
MS is basically saying "hey end-user, wanna have access to the widest variety of professionally-made games? You'll need our OS." And, "hey game-dev, wanna SELL your game? The most gamers are on Windows." They have everyone by the short hairs. It's a win-win situation for Microsoft, and a "WTF?!" for everyone else.
Dude. It's not about satisfying bureaucracy; it's about stopping the abuses of a monopolistic company that's deliberately disrespecting the societies we live in. You have every reason to want this to succeed, and none to expect it to fail, except for awareness of the fact that Microsoft are intent on circumventing the laws of our societies as long as it means profit for them.
The reason it failed is because Microsoft didn't market the thing like they market other products. I've never even heard of Windows XP N before now, and I have access to Microsoft's "special" news releases, training materials, etc. They still advertise Windows XP here, but I've never once seen an add for XP N.
So. Yes, it failed. But it failed because the company doesn't care about what the judge told it to do, just like when a judge tells an unruly kid to wise up and get back to school, it has no effect. What we need to do now is take harsher measures for the good of our society, not give up because an unruly brat doesn't see what's in everyone's interests including its own.
.In reading this, I glance to my lonely AOL cd.....and replace my cup of coffee on it so I won't stain my desk. I don't readily understand why this was forced, Window$ doesn't force you to keep using any of the proprietary(I know the spelling is wrong) software. I know I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but Bill Gate$ and his cronies at Micro$oft might have put these things in Window$ for the old ladies and other people who have no clue nor need to go and download Winamp, FireFox, Thunderbird or any other Open Source style program. All in all, Window$ was designed with the retarded user in mind, so to sell it WITHOUT something that Window$ is semi-known for would mean a failure in sales, proven here. So with that being said......PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T KILL ME!! I DON'T LIKE BILL GATE$!!
" i r 1337. j00 a l0z3r "
That talk kinda makes you cry, doesn't it?
That's right..cry those nerdly tears