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245 Comments
- inactive, on 01/18/2009, -9/+130What other choice does Microsoft have? If they don't include a browser, how are their users supposed to download the browser of their choice in the first place?
- Khast, on 01/18/2009, -9/+107I mean heck, if you are going to go after Microsoft for antitrust because they include Internet Explorer with the operating system, maybe they should go after Apple because they include Safari and iTunes. Possibly even go after some variations of Linux for including Firefox....
I'm just sayin' - ImYourRealDad, on 01/18/2009, -11/+68I've always thought these [specific] cases against MS are just plain stupid. YOU'RE USING A MICROSOFT OS SO OF COURSE IT'S GOING TO HAVE BUNDLED SOFTWARE! If your browser is so damn good then people will hear about it and be interested in trying it out. Just because you develop a browser doesn't give you the right to stuff it in another company's OS or cry unfair when they refuse to.
Mozilla is doing just fine.. - KungFooJesus, on 01/19/2009, -13/+70Exactly. the EU is after money. period. The US should sue the EU in International Court for extortion of a US company.
- mkNix, on 01/19/2009, -7/+55I for one would favor Microsoft in this one. Even though im using Firefox.
- Ymeg, on 01/18/2009, -7/+55what about MS Paint! My god, that is ruining the competition too!
The EC is just looking back at its favorite money well. - Xilliah, on 01/18/2009, -6/+33All browsers I know are free, so how does this have anything to do with monopolies?
- sh4rkb1t3, on 01/19/2009, -7/+32EU: Windows should be stripped down to nothing but Explorer.exe.
- inactive, on 01/19/2009, -6/+30Get over it, Europe.
- 98PercentChimp, on 01/18/2009, -3/+26All I could picture when I first read the headline was the President of the European Committee hitting Steve Ballmer over the head with a Monopoly board game...I don't know why...
- Xearis, on 01/19/2009, -4/+25I agree. Especially apple-however it is because MS is so big that they get the shaft.
- jjheath, on 01/19/2009, -7/+28stupid. EU needs to find something better to do. sure, i'm using FF to type this, but, a) as was pointed out above, how would i have gotten FF without first having internet explorer installed? b) if MS can't bundle IE, then apple can't bundle safari.
then we can all go to best buy and buy disks for our favorite browser </sarcasm. - Firebird2k6, on 01/19/2009, -6/+26God, Europe needs more US money?
- pathy, on 01/19/2009, -7/+27I agree with this!
It's ***** disgusting the amount of ***** Microsoft get away with. I'm looking at things that come preinstalled on my system now, and it's shocking.
There's a Bluetooth Device Manager, there's Wireless Networking Management, a firewall, Windows Defender, an Update utility, a clock, sound management software, document editing software, image editing software, an email client, a media player that can EVEN PLAY DVDS! It can write DVDs, there are GAMES included, movie editing software, a calculator, a utility to take screenshots, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
There's SO much in this OS that makes me SICK that they're allowed to get away with it - ruining competition for anyone that has a similar product. It even has it's own FILE SYSTEM!
I'm disgusted and I hope the EU fines Microsoft for all it's worth. - LMN8R, on 01/19/2009, -7/+26This is only the latest of retarded, frivolous lawsuits espoused by the EU in recent years. It's getting quite pathetic, and totally laughable.
I'm not up on European laws and procedures here, but if this ***** doesn't create some sort of uproar over there, that's really quite sad. - Eurynom0s, on 01/19/2009, -5/+23I'd like to know how they intend people to be able to get online to download other browsers if Windows comes without a browser.
- BigVi, on 01/19/2009, -3/+20They should suspend European operations for a few weeks while "exploring their options". I dont know how many European employees they even have but it would be funny to see what would happen when all update requests from Europe were banned or they just removed IE.
They need to go after apple for not offering other options to manage my ipod with (itunes sucks). - sathias, on 01/19/2009, -6/+23I reckon the EU just likes shaking an American company down for cash more than anything.
- Brassbud, on 01/19/2009, -3/+19In a few years they will be charging them for including NTFS with Windows, and will require Windows to be sold as a kernel only, and that must be open to any security companies to modify in whatever way they like.
At some point MS would be better off not selling its software in Europe and just relying on piracy to keep their market share strong. Although, then the EU would just sue because they are allowing their software to be pirated in some monopolistic way. - inactive, on 01/19/2009, -7/+22So that's how they pay for all that health care, extortion.
- LMN8R, on 01/19/2009, -4/+18This is a retarded waste of taxpayer money on a cause that none of the taxpayers give a ***** about. If Internet Explorer wasn't in Windows, it would be an absolutely awful experience.
Make whatever "butomgotherdistributionmethods" excuses you want - the fact of the matter is that the general public knows web browsers, not random applications of questionable trustworthyness to download other stuff. No web browser = no one downloading browsers like Firefox = Microsoft's monopoly grows even larger.
This ***** is ***** ridiculous. - jdoublehcubed, on 01/19/2009, -4/+18Of course its the usual EU crock of *****. The revenue model of the EU governing body is to sue microsoft on a semi anual basis any time they feel like a little extra cash.
By the way, did you notice that this suit is in response to a complaint filed by the Opera. Its actually Opera thats charging the antitrust violation. Hey Opera, have you looked at Firefox lately? If you didn't suck, you might have more than .7% market share too. - Awspire, on 01/19/2009, -6/+20***** EU monopolistic charges are nothing but a tariff under the guise of anti-trust claims.
- GalacticXenu, on 01/19/2009, -4/+17If the monopoly stranglehold is fading... then why do they need to take action?
I don't care if MS makes IE integrated and unremovable or not. I won't access it, I'll run Firefox anyway, it's always good to have a backup, and if it bothers me so much I won't use Windows. - GQCarrick, on 01/19/2009, -5/+17Exactly, this argument is old. I use IE and FF all the time. Opera is just greedy, they are the ones that bitched and complained until the EU brought this recent lawsuit against Microsoft.
- ijwhelan, on 01/19/2009, -3/+15You can't open links to download a browser if you don't have one in the first place...
- tcklord, on 01/19/2009, -3/+15Your saying it is shady to have a browser built in? That is just stupid, how would you like to be a company that is forced to include another company's product within yours because they say it isn't "fair"? The percentage of IE users is dropping already and will continue if competitors offer a more useful product. People can figure out how to install their own/different browser.
- smotpoker, on 01/19/2009, -3/+14Because MS uses IE to pervert standards and such in a way that requires Windows/IE. Read up on the "browser wars" of the '90s.
By assuring "everyone" has a copy of IE, it becomes easier for developers to justify the assumption it is ok to use MS-specific technologies that other OSes or browsers can't interpret/render. This has the end result of locking people in and tricking users into thinking the MS tech is superior when it is really just blocking competition with IP laws and rather crappy in most respects. - A11YND, on 01/19/2009, -5/+15if Microsoft is a monopoly because it ties Internet Explorer to Windows. Then what is Apple? I mean, they tie OSX to their hardware..
- iizh, on 01/19/2009, -3/+13They're just mad because we proved that the power strip in the pool was their doing not ours.
- jamesmcm, on 01/19/2009, -2/+12The issue is that it is irremovable and so they are guilty of using one product's monopoly to push another one.
It also stems from a few years back when OEMs started shipping with Netscape with IE and MS revoked their licenses. - CocodaMonkey, on 01/19/2009, -5/+14Opera might have complained but the EU took the complaint and ran with it by filling charges so it's still fair to blame the EU.
- bunit03057, on 01/19/2009, -3/+12A monopoly does not simply mean a large market share unless you are getting your definition from the game monopoly. The EU has yet to figure that out.
- GQCarrick, on 01/19/2009, -2/+11Don't give them any ideas, next they will be filing lawsuits on behalf of Adobe because MS bundles Paint instead of Photoshop.
- GQCarrick, on 01/19/2009, -3/+12Didn't the version of WinXP without Media player complete bomb in Europe? Why the EU thought forcing Microsoft to offer a version without it was a good idea is beyond me.
- McBradd, on 01/19/2009, -2/+11Yeah! By this logic Adobe should press the EU to strip MS paint out because it stops people from adopting Photoshop...
- GQCarrick, on 01/19/2009, -2/+10Exactly, when in reality its the god awful pricing schemes that Adobe has that prevents people from buying their stuff and just pirating it.
- DaveLevy, on 01/19/2009, -0/+8The Norwegian Courts (not an EU member state) have declared Apple's bundling of the ipod with itunes illegal; it stops other music vendors selling to Apple's customers. So maybe, they will.
Its the bundling and creation of barriers to entry that seen to be the anti-competitive action. The definition of monopoly in some jurisdictions is well under 50%. Microsoft do have a monopoly on the desktop and arguably the browser, although also arguably they are losing leadership mind & market share. - fugazied, on 01/19/2009, -3/+11I think you've missed the point. They can have a browser with their OS but it needs to work with the standards of the Internet and shouldn't be embedded in the OS to the point that you can't get rid of it. MS doesn't want other browser on windows machines so oppose bundling of any other browser by hardware distributors. I am guessing this doesn't effect Apple because Apple comply to Internet standards and people can easily kill safari.
- McNash, on 01/19/2009, -0/+8Umm, you can end explorer.exe in the task manager. But you realize that its just the shell right? Simple solution would've been taskmanager, new process, explorer.exe
- decoy9697, on 01/19/2009, -0/+7Er, that would be windows explorer.
- LocalDocal, on 01/19/2009, -6/+13@Boot20
I dugg up Jesus too and I did it because the EU is wrong. It's ***** ridiculously some of the things they're charging Microsoft for.
Here's a list (since I doubt you read the article):
1) It wants Microsoft to remove its browser from its own OS and offer a competitor's browser
2) EU wants Microsoft to help other companies create products that works with its products (i.e. like Office)
3) Opera wants the EU to force Microsoft to use open source standards so that other browsers will also work better
None of these are actually bad things and, hell, most of them don't even affect me (I use Firefox), but they sound ludicrous to me. Why should Microsoft be forced to do this? Why should Microsoft be forced to do things specifically to help other companies gain marketshare against it? - inactive, on 01/19/2009, -1/+8Sure, we're really jealous of the obesity, the religious fundamentalism, the obsession with guns. Oh, and not forgetting the unwarranted smugness.
- inactive, on 01/19/2009, -2/+9if that would have happened then the the world would never have both4red with making the us dollar the world standard. That would pretty much have stopped America from borrowing from the world to build their own nation.
- CarzorStelatis, on 01/19/2009, -0/+7Maybe the way Linux does it? Have a software installer which will download the browser of the user's choice?
- KayIslandDrunk, on 01/19/2009, -0/+7Is it 1999?
- ilpalazzo, on 01/19/2009, -2/+9XD
On GNU/Linux,
-GNOME provides Epiphany
-KDE provides Konqueror
-my distro (Ubuntu) actually comes with Firefox, but I'am using four browser (Epiphany, Firefox, Links 2 and one closed-source, Opera)
If I want, I can entirely and definitively remove Firefox in 30 seconds. (and I will be able to re-install any browser of my choice even if I remove all my browser, without any problem) If you try to remove IE from your MS system, it will be seriously more difficult. Here is the problem for the EU. - decoy26517, on 01/19/2009, -5/+12the EU should sue them for bundling calculator with their OSs. its unfair to the other calculator companies.
anyway, this is just good old protectionist Europe. - inactive, on 01/19/2009, -3/+9This is getting pathetic? Just greedy lawyers generating money, So hows about chasing apple for bundling Safari with OS X. and linux for bundling Firefox? Here's a simple solution free of charge if you dont like IE then dont F#$kin well use it you morons.
- ArmedRebel, on 01/19/2009, -2/+8At first was I going to bury your comment, then I continued to read. I then proceeded to digg your comment.
Hurray for sarcasm. -
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