Microsoft still can't take a hint.

[ummmm........]

Yeah, I was a big anti-Microsoft guy back during the Justice Department thing, but history has proven that IE alternatives didn't flourish due to government intervention, but consumer choice. Build a better product. Microsoft isn't interfering . . .

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Why doesn't EU just let the consumer speak with their pockets. If they don't like Microsoft, don't buy it.

Why didn't the Department of Justice find Microsoft innocent of any wrongdoing? If people don't like monopoly abuses, they can just apply consumer pressure.

It seems like you're not reading the thread. I'll sum up.

• Microsoft has gotten away with violating American law.
• Microsoft is in violation of European law, but
• The EC will not let Microsoft get away with lawbreaking.

Microsoft is trying to ignore a metric busload of laws. The two major areas are corporate responsibility and personal privacy. You sound like you want the age of robber barons back again.

 

[Grisu]

Yeah, Linux is really widely used. HAHAHAHAHA

before making "witty" onliner it might be good to check whether you actually know what you're talking about...

you seem to be under the impression that the OS market consists of home-pcs alone, where admittedly Linux still plays a minor role. when you look at the server market, for instance, things look way different. especially webservers are widely useing Linux as their OS, in fact it may well be that this site here runs on a Linux or Unix box......

 

[Grisu]

Yeah, I was a big anti-Microsoft guy back during the Justice Department thing, but history has proven that IE alternatives didn't flourish due to government intervention, but consumer choice. Build a better product. Microsoft isn't interfering . . .

the problem is that a internet browser is much easier to replace than a OS, and look how slow the IE alternatives are gaining....
for a company it's very expensive to change away from their existing OS, so they are dependant on their software supplier (a classic lock-in). what MS is doing is doing their damndest so that their software doesn't work with others, crippling standards so that once you use their product it'll cost you dearly to switch back. In doing this they are abusing their monopoly and thus breaking EU law.

 

[Verbose]

Why didn't the Department of Justice find Microsoft innocent of any wrongdoing? If people don't like monopoly abuses, they can just apply consumer pressure.

It seems like you're not reading the thread. I'll sum up.

• Microsoft has gotten away with violating American law.
• Microsoft is in violation of European law, but
• The EC will not let Microsoft get away with lawbreaking.

Microsoft is trying to ignore a metric busload of laws. The two major areas are corporate responsibility and personal privacy. You sound like you want the age of robber barons back again.

Maybe they think they do?

You're talking about the need for society, the state, to lay down and uphold a basic framework of laws for business to operate within.

The only way I can figure this is that too many Americans have been told for too long that something like that isn't necessary. ("Government's the problem, not the solution" from Reagan's days.)

This is despite the fact that the US has as many regulations and is usually as willing and able to uphold them as any country because they are necessary for the market to work.

But for some reason they can't let the US public on to this fact.

 

[kingjoshi]

Why doesn't EU just let the consumer speak with their pockets. If they don't like Microsoft, don't buy it. But by buying it, you're agreeing with Microsoft's policies. I don't understand why EU wants to become a Leninist state.

Read about the Sherman Antitrust Act. Read about the problems of monopolies and how they can be problematic if they abuse their status. Read about how that flies against capitalism. Learn about what Microsoft has done and how it has used its monopoly to pocket billions of dollars, stifle innovation, force out competition, lock in customers and a host of other problems. Learn about how when Bush came to office he gave them a wrist slap.

Please learn some things before ignorantly claiming the EU is heading towards a Leninist state. Much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[carlosMM]

The EU has no right to determine what a company includes in its product. Industrial products like asbestos and lead, perhaps, but not software included iwth an operating system.

oh hypocrisy, how I love thee!


so any product that is not inherently dangerous may not be regulated by the governments of the respective markets?

 

[Gingerbread Man]

Solution:
For the everyday user - Buy a Mac
For the experienced/corporate user - Install Linux. With the money that a big business would save by not buying OS licences, they could hire an extra couple of administrators, thereby having a system that works.

Problem solved. And as a bonus, the systems actually work!

Its these kind of legal cases that ensure that the world doesn't depend on the existance of one company. If a monopoly company in an industry as complex as the computer industry collapsed or turned completely evil, chaos would likely follow.

 

[Sidhe]

Solution:
For the everyday user - Buy a Mac
For the experienced/corporate user - Install Linux. With the money that a big business would save by not buying OS licences, they could hire an extra couple of administrators, thereby having a system that works.

Problem solved. And as a bonus, the systems actually work!

Its these kind of legal cases that ensure that the world doesn't depend on the existance of one company. If a monopoly company in an industry as complex as the computer industry collapsed or turned completely evil, chaos would likely follow.

Not really I'm a personal user and I have no choice because I play alot of games, if Apple Macs had the same choice of software as PC's I'd change over to them in a shot. How come Apple can produce a non junk operating system in five minutes but it took MS 7 years?

Read about the Sherman Antitrust Act. Read about the problems of monopolies and how they can be problematic if they abuse their status. Read about how that flies against capitalism. Learn about what Microsoft has done and how it has used its monopoly to pocket billions of dollars, stifle innovation, force out competition, lock in customers and a host of other problems. Learn about how when Bush came to office he gave them a wrist slap.

Please learn some things before ignorantly claiming the EU is heading towards a Leninist state. Much appreciated. Thank you.

It's nice to see an American talking about MS who has done his research.

Alls fair in ln war and business untill it effects the consumer, people should learn to be more dicriminating about the crap MS palm people off with, the only way I can see that happening is if there's competition. Choice is pro capatilist, monopoly is pretty much pro MS and no one else, that's why there so keen to suck the market dry like a vampire. So that no one else can feed on the gravy train. Like a vampire though they leave a horde of vacant eyed Microsoft vampires in there wake and the disease is endemic.

 

[superisis]

Solution:
For the everyday user - Buy a Mac
For the experienced/corporate user - Install Linux. With the money that a big business would save by not buying OS licences, they could hire an extra couple of administrators, thereby having a system that works.

Problem solved. And as a bonus, the systems actually work!

Its these kind of legal cases that ensure that the world doesn't depend on the existance of one company. If a monopoly company in an industry as complex as the computer industry collapsed or turned completely evil, chaos would likely follow.

I don't want a mac. I want Windows XP, but I don't want to pay extra for Windows media player, IE, and other inferior software, when I can get better online for free, legally.

 

[classical_hero]

@Sidhe. I think you like this.

This is from a paper that is made only once a year in Perth. It is a satirical paper, so it will tell you what this is about. I am just doing this by memory so the jist is there, not necessarily the accuracy.

Microsoft Makes a product that works.

Yesterday Microsoft made a product that actually worked. Their latest version of Solitaire was found to be bug free and useable.

When President Bush heard of this, he was very angry. "This is not like Microsoft at all. They must get back to what they do best."

Sorces from Microsoft are saying they are working on fixing this working software so that it does not work properly.

 

[Samson]

They sieze the source code for the networking, then Microsoft will strike back, hard.

I have not read the reat of the thread so sorry if this is double posting. I just had to as it was funny.

You do know that microsoft uses the BSD TCP-IP stack don't you? I am not sure who would want their particular version of that!

 

[GeneralZed]

oh hypocrisy, how I love thee!


so any product that is not inherently dangerous may not be regulated by the governments of the respective markets?

as if windows was dangerous . The EU is quite exagerating here, I never have seen anything in Windows that wont allow me to install Firefox, Apple Music Player, VLC etc. If you isntall a program from outside Microsoft, you'll be asked if you want to whether use it as default programm for certain files whatsoever. In the other hand, Microsoft shouldnt do such a fuss about giving out the code. The EU is clearly not interested in making it public. And I think it's good that there is a major OS out there. Why? Because I don't want to keep checking if a certain program runs on my OS, if there were 4 OSes.

 

[Sidhe]

@Sidhe. I think you like this.

This is from a paper that is made only once a year in Perth. It is a satirical paper, so it will tell you what this is about. I am just doing this by memory so the jist is there, not necessarily the accuracy.

yeah I've seen stuff like that before.

You'll have to excuse me, everyone has a topic they just love to rant on and on about MS is mine, the topic could be about Bill Gates donating another 40 million to charity and I'd find a way to make out that his company is in league with Satan and the Iluminati: I hate windows. XP finally works but I have had to reinstall windows about 15 times completely in five years that is just sh**.

 

[GinandTonic]

Does anyone doubt that ms has a de facto monopoly of the home os market? The definition of a market monopoly varies but 70% is a very concervative generalisation, and ms is far in excess of this.

Does anyone doubt that a monopoly stifles competion? Does anyone doubt that the stifiling of competion harms consumers in the long run?

The eu isnt even hassling ms's monolpoly of consumer os, only their exploitation of the monopoly to achieve anti-competayive advantage in other markets.

Totally indefencable.