The eu sure does like to bully microsoft

Post by **dzjepp** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:56 am

http://www.betanews.com/article/EU_Thre ... 1135267793

Open up bits of your code, or else! :icon33:

Post by **MKJ** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:58 am

497 million-euro fine

a speeding ticket it is not

Post by **mik0rs** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:08 am

By GoodThings2Life

posted Dec 22, 2005 - 3:27 PM

Take this Union and SHOVE IT! Now someone needs to teach them about Capitalism.
Score: 0

Not that I think they should have to release the code if they're providing APIs, but it's almost like this moron suggested infvading Europe, I think he deleted the "and freedom" at the end of his post before he submitted it.

Post by **mik0rs** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:19 am

Here's another belter

By Bugeyes

posted Dec 22, 2005 - 11:24 AM

Daily fine??? MS should just pull it's product.

Here's what we think of your commission.. run your PC's on something else. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

This is almost like me buying a TV dinner and fining the producer daily for not removing the crappy brownie.

Funny how Microsoft haven't pulled it though, he must really be in touch

Post by **Foo** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:03 pm

Every citizen in the EU pays taxes in some form or another... and people have an issue with government bodies being harsh to a big business?

Dumb priorities.

Post by **Underpants?** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:20 pm

this is yet another example of widespread, technically inept government ruling. The us justice dept Jumping in bed with the RIAA was the first huge indication to me that education is secondary to decision-making in some parts.

Post by **seremtan** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 6:05 pm

it's great watching the epic struggle between anti-EU prejudice and anti-M$ prejudice play out

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 6:07 pm

talk about played out: enough with the $ already.

Post by **seremtan** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:24 pm

oh just bite me already dude

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:42 pm

Post by **Tormentius** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:26 pm

They should pull their products from the market; simple. IMO, MS has got to take a stand at being dictated to when there are many alternative products and solutions. No company should be forced into releasing it's intellectual property.

Post by **seremtan** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:43 pm

sounds to me like the EU are just trying to make things work better with windows, and microsoft's intellectual property rights are getting in the way of that. it's not the first time MS have been taken to task over similar issues like bundling and being excessively secretive about their source code. given they must have 95% OS market share (in the PC market that is), it's usually they who are calling the shots so frankly this sudden outpouring of sympathy for their supposed underdog status regards the EU sounds a little hollow to me

Post by **jester!** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:40 pm

riddla wrote:M$ keeps the source secret so the back doors stay secret

Haw. :icon26:

Post by **glossy** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:03 am

Tormentius wrote:They should pull their products from the market; simple. IMO, MS has got to take a stand at being dictated to when there are many alternative products and solutions. No company should be forced into releasing it's intellectual property.

there's no alternative products.

don't give me any of this ubuntu/redhat/linux bullshit, if i can't install it and have my mp3s playing within 30 seconds then it's not worth it for the market. OSX isn't hitting IBM-compatable x86 for a while yet, and even then it won't run on any system that isn't fairly recent.

Windows is currently winning because it is the best tool for the job. if you pull that off the market, we devolve by 25 years. fact.

Post by **Postal** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:10 am

I'm all for letting Microsoft become unbound by worldly laws, and becoming a worldwide monopoly of everything.

If we've learned anything from DOOM, it's that they will make great strides in research and technology, until they destroy themselves.

Plus, there's the added bonus of kicking demon ass.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:21 am

glossy wrote:
Tormentius wrote:They should pull their products from the market; simple. IMO, MS has got to take a stand at being dictated to when there are many alternative products and solutions. No company should be forced into releasing it's intellectual property.
there's no alternative products.

don't give me any of this ubuntu/redhat/linux bullshit, if i can't install it and have my mp3s playing within 30 seconds then it's not worth it for the market. OSX isn't hitting IBM-compatable x86 for a while yet, and even then it won't run on any system that isn't fairly recent.

Windows is currently winning because it is the best tool for the job. if you pull that off the market, we devolve by 25 years. fact.

from the article it looks as though these third parties are mostly server/client oriented apps. if so, then your argument is moot.

Post by **glossy** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:29 am

+JuggerNaut+ wrote:
glossy wrote:
Tormentius wrote:They should pull their products from the market; simple. IMO, MS has got to take a stand at being dictated to when there are many alternative products and solutions. No company should be forced into releasing it's intellectual property.
there's no alternative products.

don't give me any of this ubuntu/redhat/linux bullshit, if i can't install it and have my mp3s playing within 30 seconds then it's not worth it for the market. OSX isn't hitting IBM-compatable x86 for a while yet, and even then it won't run on any system that isn't fairly recent.

Windows is currently winning because it is the best tool for the job. if you pull that off the market, we devolve by 25 years. fact.
from the article it looks as though these third parties are mostly server/client oriented apps. if so, then your argument is moot.

uhm.?

I don't even know how to respond to this -- almost all of their [important] software is server/client

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:32 am

glossy wrote:
+JuggerNaut+ wrote:
glossy wrote: there's no alternative products.

don't give me any of this ubuntu/redhat/linux bullshit, if i can't install it and have my mp3s playing within 30 seconds then it's not worth it for the market. OSX isn't hitting IBM-compatable x86 for a while yet, and even then it won't run on any system that isn't fairly recent.

Windows is currently winning because it is the best tool for the job. if you pull that off the market, we devolve by 25 years. fact.
from the article it looks as though these third parties are mostly server/client oriented apps. if so, then your argument is moot.
uhm.?

I don't even know how to respond to this -- almost all of their [important] software is server/client

so what's that got to do with YOU running open source and playing .mp3's "within 30 seconds"? absolutely nothing.

Post by ek » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:36 am

Jack shit, the cunt didnt even read the article.

I agree with Torm, best bet for MS is to threaten to pull out of Europe. Sure MS is a monopoly but to be forced to release its own work in Europe will have a global impact on MS's day to day operations.

Post by **glossy** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:45 am

+JuggerNaut+ wrote:
glossy wrote:
+JuggerNaut+ wrote: from the article it looks as though these third parties are mostly server/client oriented apps. if so, then your argument is moot.
uhm.?

I don't even know how to respond to this -- almost all of their [important] software is server/client
so what's that got to do with YOU running open source and playing .mp3's "within 30 seconds"? absolutely nothing.

Torm said they should just pull their products off the market, and I said the entire technology sector would devolve by 25 years, because there's no alternative. All other IBM x86 OSes (mostly linux distros) aren't user-friendly enough to take off.

I installed ubuntu a few weeks ago, for a laugh. Fairly painless, until I wanted to play an MP3 over a samba share (not possible, apparently). I had to copy the file over to my local harddrive, then download another media player off the internet, drop into shell and type a bunch of install commands, then copy it to a directory where i didn't have access (not running as root). With ubuntu, you don't get a root account, so i trawled through settings, found a admin account, enabled it, set the password, but it wouldn't let me log in. I couldn't copy these files to the directory they needed to be in to run.

Moral of the story is that ubuntu is shit, because something as simple as playing an mp3 file is overly difficult, even for a poweruser like me. Some linux expert will have a very simple solution for this, but I don't care any more.

Microsoft is a necessary evil, at least for the moment. It's sad but it's true. If they pull out of Europe, not only do they become very poor and probably turn back into a little OS-only company (a good thing, it lessens the monopoly) but europe is fucked.

Post by **glossy** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:46 am

ek wrote:Jack shit, the cunt didnt even read the article.

The European Commission on Thursday threatened to hit Microsoft with a 2 million euro daily fine for refusing to open Windows to third parties.

Windows is an operating system.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:49 am

i hear what you're saying, but you're coming at it from a home user perspective, when i'm only referring to the business side of it. that is why i asked what your experience with linux had anything to do with it.

offtopic, it's too bad you had problems with Ubuntu.

Post by **glossy** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:53 am

Yeah, I really wanted to be able to dualboot it because it seems pretty slick (plus a little linux knowledge wouldn't hurt), but I really couldn't do basic tasks and get started. Better luck next time hopefully!

p.s. Who's betting the EU doesn't end up fining Microsoft?

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:55 am

glossy wrote:Yeah, I really wanted to be able to dualboot it because it seems pretty slick (plus a little linux knowledge wouldn't hurt), but I really couldn't do basic tasks and get started. Better luck next time hopefully!

p.s. Who's betting the EU doesn't end up fining Microsoft?

not sure about the Samba bit, but the player that came default in both Ubuntu and Kubuntu played my local .mp3's and .flac files fine.

re: your question - i'm not betting against that...

Post by **seremtan** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 3:43 am

yes, microsoft should pull out of one its biggest markets and lose a giant portion of its profits plus hand over a huge market share to someone else. it stands to reason