Posted on 01/17/2009 3:46:50 AM PST by reaganaut1
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union said Friday that Microsoft’s practice of selling the Internet Explorer browser together with its Windows operating system violated the union’s antitrust rules.
It ordered the software giant to untie the browser from its operating system in the 27-nation union, enabling makers of rival browsers to compete fairly.
“Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between Web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice,” the E.U. said in a statement.
It gave Microsoft eight weeks to respond, adding that the company could defend its position in a hearing if it found that useful.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Some call it cheating. You hear that a lot. But it's really only that MS had a better business model, delivering greater total value to its customers than any of its competitors.
you can thank kaliphornia for giving eu the idea to do this
For years ,anyone who wants to has been able to download or even have sent free to their home or business,Ubuntu linux on CD.
As much as I dislike some M$ practices,the EU is trying to close the barn door after the horse is out!
IF M$ had been prevented from providing any web browsers,Netscape would probably be still dominant.
AOL actually killed off Netscape,after buying it.
I suppose you forgot the Canyon episode?
Or the threats that Gates & co. made to Apple?
I suppose you forgot the fact that Apple paid for (not stole) the technology from Xerox?
Or the fact that "Gadgets" on Windows came out years after "Widgets" on OSX. Maybe that's not stealing code, but it's certainly stealing ideas.
But there was a long while (before lawsuits forced the issue) that you couldn't buy an Intel computer without buying Windows.
Damn' straight, as should ANY company that has a Government or "Union" trying to tell them how to build and sell their product.
Oh wait, we have that happening here in the US with the Gub'mint and the Detroit big-three!
The day the Government tells me how to run my business is the day I tell them how much it costs to buy it. If they refuse to buy my business so they can run it as THEY see fit, then I tell them to go piss up a rope.
That one got me. I am so illiterate with this stuff and I thought I had to have Safari. I was in the middle of downloading it when my son happened to call and told me,"No". Good thing he knew how to get it off my computer.
I hate being the perfect target dope that falls for things like Safari. :(
Microsoft used its operating system to promote Word which killed off Word Perfect. Microsoft used its operating system to promote Excel which killed off Lotus 1,2,3.
Then download Open Office. Totally free with all the functionality you could want.
Microsoft used its operating system to promote Explorer which killed off Netscape.
Considering I'm viewing this page on my free, superior Mozilla Firefox 3 browser, I'm thinking that's not much of an issue either.
There are some genuine beefs with monopolistic practices, but this web browser thing is beyond ridiculous.
FTP or WGET come to mind. Of course you can open up your package manager and pull it from a repository.
This is another ridiculous attempt at extracting more huge fines from M$. The market share of Internet Explorer is already dropping as is, so people are finding their choices. When the EC forced M$ to ship an OS to Europe without Windows Media Player, it was very unpopular with the people.
Bookmark
I have Windows and I still use Firefox. Firefox is free too, but youi need a browser to download it....
You said — “M$ ought to just tell the EU to live without Windows and Office from now on.”
That would be cool. They could start using the Apple office package and Mac OS X. That would be a boon to Apple...
You said — “Careful, you’re not allowed to say anything negative about Apple or anything positive about Microsoft on this board.”
Hmmmm..., that sounds like a good rule..., I’ll take it...
LOL...
Um, I clearly remember my TRS-80 CoCo communicating with a DEC-10, and other unlike machines. CompuServe, my college campus... This was before M$.
I can assure you standards did exist before M$. They had to to some extent. Now in the area of LAN, there was no clearly dominate topology and/or protocol for some time. And back before Ethernet and TCP/IP became dominate, one company made a lot of money by being able to accommodate and integrate all those differing networks; communicate, share files and print services from a heterogeneous mix of machines and networks: Novell.
You said — “Uninstalling IE on any windows OS since Win95 would render the GUI almost inoperable.”
From my point of view, that sounds like a good idea... LOL..
I dunno, I would call it a hell of a good marketing plan
Oh please, that's not an option for the masses. I teach basic computing (among other courses) and if people don't even know how to use a mouse correctly you think that they're capable of installing a browser? NOT!!! There are a lot of people who would never be able to access the web if their computers didn't come with a browser. Not everyone is a computer techie.
So, if I produce a keyboard driver, a sound driver, a font engine, or a graphics motif I can sue to get the EU to demand Microsoft remove those from its OS as well??
Stupid Euroweenies.
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