Posted on 04/02/2005 10:39:45 PM PST by jb6
The European Union has revealed it is to ban the sale and use of Apple Macintosh computers by 2006 - citing "the need for unification" in a directive unveiled today.
Directive EU01042005, which was passed during a late-night session in Brussels, will be adopted by all member countries on January 1, 2006, and prohibits the "sale, use, resale, leasing, and hire" of Apple Macs due to their lack of full compatibility with Windows computers, and the fact that no-one in the EU parliment can get a decent expenses package to wwork on them. The directive reckons that Apple's "lack of floppy disk drive" is discriminatory to EU residents, and that the Apple logo doesn't hail from the apple-growing regions of Southern France.
Apple iPods are excluded from the move -- although they must be renamed EuPods -- but Apple dealers across the EU angrily denounced the move.
Protest grows
"This is disasterous, an extremely bad day for computer users, and for Apple Mac users in particular," said Haarold Gremann of Macrwelt Dbh, a reseller in German. "We are calling all Mac users to take to the streets and protest this move in the strongest terms possible."
Stefan Cava, sales manager of MacAvanti, a Mac reseller in Rome, told Digit the move would spell the end for his business. "It's terrible. With the iPod, people are enjoying Apple, and now the EU will be taking the greatest platform away. I can't believe that Windows will win through the back door. I love my country, but I suggest Mac users all move to America, pronto."
Designer pressure
Designers will face tough punishments under the new law -- with even the eating of apples (and some oranges) at Windows computers liable for a fine of €5,000. People using the colour Aqua will face a lesser fine of €2,000.
The proposal will see member countries opening Mac Trash dumping sites from September, with companies and businesses being given three months to rid themselves of all Macs, including waterproof ones. In a similar move, MacDonalds will be renamed WinDonalds, and the 'Mac' prefix of some Scottish surnames will also be outlawed.
"It's time Europe dumped its so-called FireWire, Safari, and US-named Trash -- these are the work of the Devil, and are dirty," said Commissioner Hardy Haha, who proposed the directive. "I use Windows and the two-button mouse is a beacon of choice. One button mice are all about segregation. We had to take a stand."
It's written by Follie Aprille.
Recently? It started the antitrust investigation in 1998.
The reality of the OEM market at the time was that you had to sell Windows in order to survive. Microsoft tried two tactics to keep other OSs from being sold. It refused to give good volume pricing if OEMs shipped other OSs, and it required OEMs to pay for Windows even in those cases when anothe OS was shipped instead of Windows. This meant another OS would cost the same as or more than a Windows machines (IBM had to charge for Windows on OS/2 systems it shipped, and OEMs couldn't give a discount for just shipping free Linux or a bare box).
It's not a religion, it's a small reformist group fighting the good fight against the established main line PC religion that is in the throws of insidious invasions from multiple sources and eternally infected with worms and viruses.
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