http://www.computerworld.com/action...articleId=9134004&taxonomyId=89&intsrc=kc_top Now it appears joining the EU on its pick on Microsoft campaign... I thought the browser suit that started in the EU was crazy, but this makes that look sensible. Anyone dissagree?
Welcome socioalism.. On another note, Microsoft is abusing their market power. This is apparent though the implementation of Internet Explorer and the non-backward compatible Microsoft Office 2007 suite. Also, you may have known that Halo 2 PC required Vista to play inspite of the literally backward graphics that doesn't utilise Direct X10 and if you've played it on Vista, you'll witness one of the worst graphics for it's age on PC. Do realise that with a certain loader, many XP players were able to happily play Halo 2 PC even when Microsoft emphasized that ' Due to new form programming, Halo 2 will not work on XP'. Clearly, they're trying to siphon every single dollar from us with a petty comment and planned marketting tactics. Unfortunately Microsoft, there are gifted hackers out there who can find a solution to your stupidity.
I agree with Russia here, but not with the EU. I mean, It's THEIR operating system, It would seem logical that they bundle it only with their browser. So what If you can't delete it, you can just use something else instead. And It's not like they're charging you to use it or something, its free. Russia's case is solid imo, Microsoft screwed up big time with vista. I'm sure they'll make it up with 7 tho
I think you've forgotten about the incident with the former browser giant Netscape. Many of people lost their jobs because of IE.
I re-read the article just to make sure I read the same thing you guys did, and I still come to the same conclusion, it's nuts. The major part of Russia's lawsuit is that Microsoft wants to discontinue support for Windows XP, what? That's like trying to sue Blizzard for discontinueing support for Sc once they release Sc2, or continueing to create level 60 content once they released TBC for WoW, it makes no sense. Just because someone made bad software doesn't mean you get to sue them when they choose to discontinue supporting software you like, it's not like Microsoft is trying to hinder you from buying from other software companies (which I do agree they did do in the past, but that's not what's going on with this lawsuit). The EU lawsuit is being discussed in another thread and I think that suit has way more merit than this one, and I don't think the EU has any real merit to speak of.
I think it's more of the fact that said ****ty system essentially has a monopoly. I mean, yeah, you can argue OSX and Linux till your throat bleeds, but honestly, how useful is it in real world applications? You can't run a power plant off OS X anymore than you can have a school computer lab run in Ubuntu.
I don't know about Ubuntu (I am not really a Linux guy, obviously...) but my high school actually has a couple of computer labs running Centos 5. The tech supervisor discovered it would only take a fraction ofthe cost of a Windows lab and make it way easier to monitor students if they set up a terminal server. As far as Microsoft and their market share go, it is true they might as well have a monopoly, but they don't have a true monopoly and their are plenty of other choices out their. Microsoft has already been punished several times over for their anti-competitive acts in the past, the fact they still have an effective monopoly is more of a testement to Windows than Microsoft's past discretions (or it's a testement to how pathetic the competition is, take your pick). The lawsuit Russia is filing though has nothing to with past incidents though. They are saying Microsoft shouldn't be allowed to discontinue support for a product, which is simply ludicrous, especially in something like the rapidly changing computer industry. I still think WoW makes a good thought expirment for this situation. Russia is essentially claiming that because WoW has the lion's share of the MMO market it should be required to add new content to level 60, despite the fact they released expansion packs to raise the level cap to 70 and then 80.
@ the Centos 5 thing - That's actually extremely awesome. I'm not a hardcore opensource guy, but I dual boot Linux and Win7 on my netbook, variety is good. Microsoft has every legal right to discontinue XP, I'm not faulting them on that. But XP is a huge percentage of home and business PC's. Instead of your WoW analogy, it would be more akin to Honda announcing it's no longer making parts for their Civic and Accord lines.
