Surprise! Consumers Aren’t Helpless Morons

Shout Bits Blog ^ | 03/13/2010 | Shout Bits

[Shout Bits]

The European Union’s uber-bureaucracy spent most of the last decade prosecuting Microsoft for monopoly abuse. While the EU could have looked to the US’s decade of Microsoft prosecution to see how pointless regulating the swift moving technology industry is, the feisty Europeans had to make their point. The EU’s complaint settled on the fact that Microsoft bundles its web browser, IE, with every copy of Windows. Never mind that every other operating system comes with a web browser too, the EU reckoned that because of Windows’ popularity, Microsoft was abusing its power by forcing IE on consumers. The EU crusade against Microsoft is yet another tale of the government waging a war against problems that do not exist and about which nobody cares. . . .

[Nateman]

Hard to be a monopoly when there is a free alternative that is better in many ways. I even bought my computer with Linux preloaded. It's all this government meddling that made Microsoft jump into the lobbying game in the first place. I guess the European politicians are angling for bribes now.