EU Think Tank Urges Full Windows Unbundling

leffeman writes "An influential Brussels think tank is urging the European Commission to ban the bundling of operating systems with desktop and laptop computers. The Globalisation Institute's submission to the Commission says that bundling 'is not in the public interest' and that the dominance of Windows has 'slowed technical improvements and prevented new alternatives entering from the marketplace.' It says the Microsoft tax is a burden on EU businesses: the price of operating systems would be lower in a competitive market. This is the first time a major free-market think tank has published in favour of taking action against Microsoft's monopoly power."

Comments

Interesting...

[NEOtaku17]

"This is the first time a major free-market think tank has published in favour of taking action against Microsoft's monopoly power."

So basically it is the first time a "free-market" think tank has recommended policy that is against free-market principles. Makes sense. I guess it would be equally worth noting when a socialist think tank recommends policy in favor of a free-market. Am I right?

yeah, but that is the problem

[WindBourne]

MS is only responding to market pressures from Linux. They have LONG ago quite worrying about Mac or Unix. That is why MS needs to be stopped. I think that they unbundling is a good start.

Re:Apple

[flyingfsck]

No, it won't affect Apple. They are not a convicted monopolist. They are free to do as they please within the normal constraints of the law. It is MS' flouting of the law and predatory behaviour that got them into trouble.

Re:Waves of Mass histeria

[ShieldW0lf]

Those aren't repairs. They're general maintenance operations. Yes, most people do these things for themselves, unless they're spoiled rich or absolute idiots. Well, most men do at any rate... most women get a man to do it for them. It's customary to get a buddy or two to come spot you and help drink the beer, but not mandatory.

Do you seriously pay people to do these basic things for you?

None of it Matters

[Eskarel]

It doesn't matter what the courts do, how much you open the API, how much you break up Microsoft, how much you recommend that the industry needs competition because you can't create competition that doesn't exist. Apple doesn't want to compete in that space and neither does Linux.

Linux could be a major player in the Desktop OS market if they gave up choice, gave up control, and treated closed source vendors as valued members of the community. That isn't going to happen though, there is never going to be just one Linux distro, nor is there ever going to be just one Linux Desktop Environment. The community is never going to stabilize interfaces in order to allow proprietary hardware and software to work reliably 100% of the time on Linux. These things are not going to happen because they go against the values that make linux what it is today.

Mac isn't going to sell OSX for beige boxes, they aren't going to turn Macs into beige boxes. Whatever their reasons, Apple isn't going to compete either.

In the world of Desktop Operating Systems, Microsoft is the Else. If Linux isn't right for you, and OSX isn't right for you, you get Windows, and right now there are an awful lot of people who fit into the else, and I don't see any way to incorporate those people into Linux or Apple without giving up most of what makes those systems great in the first place.