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Microsoft Faces Fresh Antitrust Complaints
Rob wrote to mention a Computer Business Online review piece about new anti-trust action against Microsoft on both sides of the Atlantic. From the article: "Other examples of anticompetitive behavior cited by Tangent include bundling of Outlook with Office and Active Directory with Windows Server, as well as the bundling of Windows Media Player and Windows Media Server with its desktop and server operating system respectively. Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment on Tangent's complaint, other than to acknowledge that it was being reviewed, but was more forthcoming in responding to a fresh complaint lodged with the European Commission by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS)."
What are they going to do? Fine them? - it is already well known that you can not fine them enough to make it feasible for them to stop these practices. MS has moved above the law of any land. I feel the only hope is OSS as a groundswell, this the only way to solve the current software stagnation that is around today.
Stay tuned for new sig...
There is antitrust action against Linux bundling GNU software...oh well.
Apple is just as evil. The fact they can still bundle hardware/software combos is beyond me specially since most of their hardware amounts to overpriced underperforming PCs of yesteryear (ahem, G4 laptops? what the fuck is that?).
... or ... move to a farm in EASTERN FUCKING EUROPE AND NEVER MINGLE WITH SOCIETY!
... you DON'T have a choice.
Two wrongs don't make a right. Just because Apple isn't getting "sliced" (hehehe) in the court of anti-stupid business practices doesn't mean what MSFT is doing is right.
If we really had a free market you could buy that quality apple hardware and rightfully run anything you wanted on it (try getting hardware support for a mac running linux...). Or you could run Mac OSX on any compliant piece of hardware (which basically means x86 or PPC now). etc...
"choice" though scares people. They think if they "choose" to buy a monopoly driven piece of crap that's good enough.
I mean you can either buy that PC with windows
It's a fucking fact of life that you need to have a computer around to mingle with society. Maybe not in your home but nearby (school, library, etc). And if your only choice is that Mac with OSX or PeeCee with Windows
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
The M$ makes you look like an idiot.