Fine, Remedies For Microsoft

FINE, REMEDIES FOR MICROSOFT


The European commission said on Wednesday it intends to fine Microsoft for what it called continuing abuses of dominant market position and forces it to change the way it distributes its media player software.
The EU also said it could order Microsoft to open up the code for its computer server software to outside firms.
An EU spokesman said the commission felt it had a strong case against the Microsoft and amount of fine would be linked to the severity and distribution of Microsoft's perceived offence. It accused Microsoft leveraging its dominant position in media players and low-end servers, which manages everything from websites to email systems.
Microsoft said it had already taken steps to address the problem raised by EU. It added that this would lengthen the 3yr old anti-trust probe.
The EU executives said it was giving Microsoft a Final chance to comment before it orders it to share crucial server software codes with competitors such as sun Microsystems Inc. and oracle corp.

submitted by:
nitin

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

The top dog will always be accused of illegal business tactics. *sigh*

Silence you garrulous dolt; you're fucking up my chi!

Well I agree with this fine.
Windows XP includes intergrated own zip utility, mail client, firewall (*cough*) media player, burning software, browser. Now that MS has bought an AV company we will likely see an intergrated AV product. They are even working on competing with vmware with the virtual server (they bought connectix-maker of virtual pc).
This would by itself not be bad but some of these product really blow.
I will choose winamp over media player, winzip/winrar over WMP, eudora over OE, any burning software over theirs, opera over IE and I wont even start about the intergrated firewall.
All these intergrated programs that I dont use form a load on my hdspace
Instead of intergrating these products they should take them out of the OS and focus on the OS itself. Perhaps make the product available for download or something but NOT INTERGRATE THEM.

Well that is just my opinion.
Cheers
noODle

Overhead the albatros hangs motionless upon the air.

well can anyone fine microsoft

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

As I recall, Microsoft has been fined about a million times before, but that's beside the matter at hand.

Microsoft was already sued by Netscape and many other computer companies because of the preinstalled software that came with Windows. Now I do agree with the EU council that Windows should stop including more and more software of their own and increase the variety or choice from other software companies. As fas a s i can remember, Microsoft now has to give the user an option at the install, wether they want to install Internet Explorer or not. Because a lot of users of Windows are home users and a lot of them don't know a difference between Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape or Mozilla or Opera, they just go with the preinstalled stuff. This does lead to the fact that Microsoft indirectly influences a lot of people on the software they use.

Now for the code part the EU was talking about. On that point I disagree with them. Microsoft is a company that has millions of employees whom they all payed to work on their operating system to make it work. Someone once told me that there is a version of Windows out there that includes the windows source code. I'm just against forcing people to make their code open source. Even if a lot of important server are running Windows, it was their choice to use it. They could have taken Linux, which is open source. And let's all face it, Windows does not run under the GNU GPL license, so they don't have to give anyone the code for their product.

So, I'm pro with increasing the variety of programs to choose from at install time. Especially, including products from different computer companies.
And I'm contra with the open source of their server software. What they could do is make a special developer edition of their servers and then sell those again for money like they always do.

The worst enemy on the battlefield is an officer with a map.

quote:

So, I'm pro with increasing the variety of programs to choose from at install time. Especially, including products from different computer companies. And I'm contra with the open source of their server software. What they could do is make a special developer edition of their servers and then sell those again for money like they always do.

I agree completly.

I don't know the ins and outs of the fine the EU is setting up but I don't think (like you said) that people/companies should be forced to make their software open-source.
I do have read something a while back about MS releasing their source code to certain governments as part of their thrustworthy computing initiative (I believe Russia was the first to recieve this). This I think is a good idea (they have to sign some sort non-disclosure agreement I believe).

Microsoft should try the linux way. There should be option to install/uninstall components and packages.

Administrator

Ravish, you hit the nail right on the head. That's exactly what I want and probably a lot of other people as well. Now as far as I know, the newest Windows Longhorn, which is still in its production phase, is supposed to consist of packages. At least the kernel is supposed to be that way. But I strongly think that a user should have the option to choose for himself what programs they want to use. If then they still user Microsoft Explorer, it is their own choice. When I'm using Windows, I'm using the Internet Explorer. For one this is due to the fact that I don't like Netscape and because Internet Explorer is preinstalled. If there was an option when you install Windows to choose Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer, I would go with Mozilla.

I know, I know, you are probably going to ask why I didn't just download the Windows version of Mozilla and just use that one? I'm tooooooooooo lazy to do it. Besides I haven't used Windows for about 1.5 months now and so far I'm not missing it.

The worst enemy on the battlefield is an officer with a map.

well ya ravish
thats cool microsoft trying linux way that sounds a bit funny to me coz what microsoft wants is more n more money and publicity
i can bet they won't allow the users to choose there software packages coz thats there way of monopoly which had work for them by today lets see what happens in the future...

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

Well, they don't exactly have a monopoly, since there are other products, but they can be forced to make options for the users to choose what software they want to have preinstalled. Like you said: "microsoft wants is more n more money"

So if you sue Microsoft for a couple of billion US dollars and you do this continually then after a while they will change that software. After all, the preinstalled software , like Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player are free software since you don't have to buy them extra like Microsoft Word or Outlook. They are not going to want to loose that much money if the cheapest thing is to just let people choose if they want to have Internet Explorer or Netscape or if they want to have Windows Media player or Winamp installed.

The worst enemy on the battlefield is an officer with a map.

dread u thinks that internet explorer and windows media player are free softwares but in a sense they are not ...
as microsoft is giving those softwares for free coz it makes there software popular and in a sense popularising both these softwares and the windows....
as windows is having a hard competition with linux...

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

I know that they only exist for Microsoft Windows and they do come with Windows, but they are free since you don't have to pay extra for them.

The entire thing with the forced diversity of installble software products in the Windows install is mainly to stop Windows from forcing you to install that software.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what Microsoft is going to do about this software problem with their newest Windows (Longhorn), which is to come out beginning of 2005

The worst enemy on the battlefield is an officer with a map.

well ya we don't had to pay for that softwares but microsoft gots not money but even more bigger thing from it thats popularity.....
u know in india 99.9% of computers used at home are having media players and IE coz they are happy with it and don't want any other.....

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

Here's a quote from me earlier:

quote:

Because a lot of users of Windows are home users and a lot of them don't know a difference between Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape or Mozilla or Opera, they just go with the preinstalled stuff. This does lead to the fact that Microsoft indirectly influences a lot of people on the software they use.

If they were given the choice to use a different program, then I believe the amount of IE and WMP users would drop. If it doesn't drop then it only means that the people think that IE or WMP is better than the other programs.

The worst enemy on the battlefield is an officer with a map.

ya u r right dread
peoples don't know bout other softwares or say better subsitutes for IE or WMP , they would not even think to get them.....
its just bundling of free SW which makes those IE or WMP popular....

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

And that's what the EU council wants to change by forcing Microsoft to give the people options to choose what SW they want to install on their computer.

The worst enemy on the battlefield is an officer with a map.

ya
what it would look like when we are having freedom to choose softwares which we want to have and not just got them bundled....

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

quote:

what it would look like when we are having freedom to choose softwares which we want to have and not just got them bundled....

Linux....

Overhead the albatros hangs motionless upon the air.

ya
but not better than linux.......

Well for me life is very small and one time oppurtunity given to us by allmighty up above there so i want to make most of that so that after my death i keep living in peoples heart

huh ?

Overhead the albatros hangs motionless upon the air.