Slashdot Mirror
EU Regulators Open New Microsoft Investigations
The New York Times is reporting on two new investigations into Microsoft business practices opened by EU antitrust regulators. The new cases center on the company's positioning of Office and Internet Explorer, and were apparently partially prompted by Microsoft's earlier heel-dragging. "'It would have been preferable if these issues could have been resolved amicably with Microsoft,' said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes. 'But that has not proved to be the case. Therefore we have opened these formal investigations. That does not prove there is a violation. We will only be able to come to a conclusion after investigations.' The legal battle that ended last year involved the bundling of a media player with Windows and the availability of information required to make rival software operate smoothly with Microsoft products. In September, the Court of First Instance, Europe's highest after the European Court of Justice, endorsed the commission's 2004 decision to impose record fines on Microsoft."
already discussed here: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/14/1719237
Dupy dupy dupe...
Bundling software has been the source of the EU's complaints against MS. The only way to fight bundling is to inform the consumer that they have choices. Until the average consumer understands that there are other programs outside the suite that Microsoft offers, there will be no real competition. Power users are not in the majority. The people that know what vlc, foobar, opera, etc. are are not in the majority. Firefox has proven that is possible to break out and actually compete with MS products, but they had to establish name recognition with consumers. The standard windows package with WMP and IE will cotntinue to strangle the market until people become vaguely familiar with the fact that their are options. It wouldn't hurt for people understand open source support and how it contrasts with closed source support, but that's probably an unattainable dream. However, Firefox has proven that when the stars align, there is a market for non-MS products.
Education is, as always, the great equalizer. It's the only thing that can make a market actually work.
I got a catholic block.
I honestly wonder sometimes... what are the real motivating factors behind these lengthy government investigations? It seems sometimes that it's just a case of politicians paying lip service to issues they really know nothing about, in an attempt to appear to the public as though they care about the underlying problems. You could also take the "follow the money" argument; how many peoples' jobs depend on efforts to fine companies for perceived wrongdoings? I'm certainly not trying to paint Microsoft in any sort of rosy light; I find a lot of their business practices to be pretty despicable (and have for a long, long time). I guess I'm saying we should be cautious granting trust to any party in circumstance where the stakes, whether political or financial (or both) are high.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Man, the EU must really be out to get MS. They're opening what, like a new investigation every day?
This guy's the limit!
And then Microsoft announced it would be delaying the release of all new products to any EU countries by 6 to 12 months along with an internal 10% EU tax increase.
The bastards in Redmond deserve everything they get. They steal everybody's ideas and "innovate" very little. I say Bravo! to the EU! Nail the bastards!
I wonder if it's Microsoft being a clear example of a company that got ahead and then rested on it's lead or is it cases like this that are bringing it down? Now that they're losing their lead it's hard for them to change because it's so ingrained in their corporate culture that they're ahead. Granted they do put out some new and interesting technology, they are getting smoked in a number of areas.
Microsoft's problem is that they thought they were beyond reach. They behaved as bastards--thinking they could not be touched. So, Microsoft started this and the EU is pissed and is going to finish it.
Man, the guy posting these things is clearly bat shit crazy.
It reads like the time cube guy -- I have no idea what he's trying to say. I see about one of these per week.
The EU Department of Redundancy Department is getting tired of reading the same stories 2 or even 3 times.
News at 11:11.
That says it all, doesn't it?
If you are not a Geek you expect functionality out of the box - and all the better if the bundled apps look native to the system.
If you are not a Geek you have no interest in the bare bones of the OS.
The New York Times is reporting on two new investigations into Microsoft story dupes opened by Slashdot editors. The new cases center on Slashdot's obsession with the bundling of Office and Internet Explorer, and were apparently partially prompted by Cmdr Taco's earlier heel-dragging. "'It would have been preferable if these dupes could have been resolved amicably with samzenpus,' said Senor Taco, a spokesman for the Firehose Dupe Commision. 'But that has not proved to be the case. Therefore we have opened these formal dupes. That does not prove there is a dupe. We will only be able to come to a conclusion after further dupe stories.' The Slashdot dupes that continue involve the bundling of a media player with Windows and the availability of information required to make rival software operate smoothly with Microsoft products. In September, the Court of First Dupe, Slashdot's highest after the European Court of Dupes, endorsed the commission's 2004 decision to impose record dupe stories about Microsoft."
As a corollary, what does Opera expect? That IE is no longer distributed with Windows and instead Opera is? How does that improve the situation at all? Distributing Opera with the OS would just be trading one for the other; the same issues would still exist.
If we assume that IE's market share is largest because it's distributed with the OS, then the conclusion is that Opera is just looking to enlarge its own piece of the pie. It's not anyone's (no, not even Microsoft's) fault that random users don't care about which browser they use.
....looked confused at me the other day :
Porn-dealer : You want WHAT?
Me : Neelie Kroes.
Porn-dealer : A pin-up of Neelie Kroes?
Me : Yes.
The link you posted was to a similar story in the "YRO" section.
It was posted at a date/time design to best suit europeans. This story was posted at a date/time better suited to american geeks after work in the "Politics" section.
It was so done to keep most people happy and docile while the hardcore slashdotters who sit there hitting "refresh" around the clock could grow incensed.
Then people in Oceania and Asia could sit back and have a good belly laugh at all the typically paranoid american comments on the YRO story about how this is all just a political move by an EU who is trying to destroy US business and then sit back and wait for the comedic pragmatism of europeans complaining that the story has been posted to the "Politics" and has a USA flag on the banner when it is clearly a legitimate legal issue.
Looks like it worked a treat!
I don't therefore I'm not.
It's not anyone's fault that random users don't care about which browser they use.
That's the typical case: users will use what's most convenient. Microsoft can dictate that IE is most convenient. So there's your problem.
Let any company make deals with OEMs to be the default browser, or in the absence of any deal, let the OEMs choose without pressure from MS what's best for their business.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
The decision which allows Microsoft include Internet Explorer with Windows in the United States is clearly wrong and should be overturned.
Why don't you include the fact that for Microsoft the European market is actually larger than the US? Microsoft takes home a lot more money from Europe than the US! I believe I heard something like 50%+