Microsoft fined by EU (5 Viewers)

[Martin]

EU to impose 497 million euro fine on Microsoft-sources

BRUSSELS, March 22 (Reuters) - European Union states on Monday backed a proposal to fine Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people) a record 497 million euros ($613.5 million) for abusing its dominance of PC operating systems, an EU member state source said.

If the full European Commission backs the fine as expected on Wednesday it would exceed the 462 million euro penalty imposed on Hoffman-La Roche AG in 2001 for being ringleader of a vitamin cartel.

The Commission will also order Microsoft to offer a version of its Windows operating system without Windows Media Player to computer makers and to provide information to rival makers of servers so their products are more compatible with Windows desktop machines.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/03/22/rtr1307441.html

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And here's a humorous timeline from slashdot

March 25, 2004 Microsoft fined E497M by the EU.

April 05, 2004 Microsoft files appeal.

June 11, 2004 Verdict upheld.

June 22, 2004 Microsoft contributes heavily to the Republican party.

July 05, 2004 EU declared part of the "Axis of Evil"

July 13, 2004 Colin Powell declares the EU has "Weapons of mass destruction, without a doubt."

July 27, 2004 US troops roll into the EU to promote Bush's "World Liberation '04" re-election campaign.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=101369&cid=8638293

 

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[gray]

Excellent news

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

so are they going to release the new OS without the Media Player and stuff like that ?

 

[Martin]

In Europe at least they'll have to dump the media player yeah.

 

[gray]

I think the biggest problem is Internet Explorer. It's a joke that it can't be uninstalled without the system going haywire. Even though little can be done about it now, a large part of the reason for Netscape's demise was the sheer lack of opportunities for them to market their browser, since every damn computer came with IE.

MSN Messenger also needs to be de-integrated (disintegrated wouldn't be too bad either ) from the OS

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

++ [ originally posted by Graham ] ++
I think the biggest problem is Internet Explorer. It's a joke that it can't be uninstalled without the system going haywire. Even though little can be done about it now, a large part of the reason for Netscape's demise was the sheer lack of opportunities for them to market their browser, since every damn computer came with IE.

MSN Messenger also needs to be de-integrated (disintegrated wouldn't be too bad either ) from the OS

but i still want them to be available for free from their website. WMP is great. well i havent tried much and i know some of u people will say that Winamp or somethin else is better but i like WMP.

 

[Martin]

I guess the problem with IE is that it's really only a plug in to explorer.exe or whatever you wanna call the monolithic beast under the hood. You can't really remove it because it's not designed to be disattached in any kind of situation.

I despise msn messenger, I would love for the EU to kick some butt on that one.

 

[gray]

I preferred media player 2. It didn't have annoying sidebars and banners, and buttons that took up half the screen. I've noticed that with all such programs, as the version number increases, as does the number of ads, exponentially :groan: Take Realplayer for example. It used to be somewhat neat a fair while ago, now it's a blood adboard that can sometimes play media clips

 

[gray]

btw, if you purchased your copy of windows, WMP etc. being available for 'free' download is a bloody sham, since it used to come with the package, but now you have to waste your time and bandwidth downloading their crappy software

 

[Martin]

++ [ originally posted by Don Bes ] ++
but i still want them to be available for free from their website. WMP is great. well i havent tried much and i know some of u people will say that Winamp or somethin else is better but i like WMP.

Don, get this version of the media player. It's not bloated, it doesn't have any crappy skins, it doesn't send information about what files you open to microsoft etc. And it works just as well, just depends on the codecs you have installed. It also loads much faster.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=223864

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

do i have to just install it? will it cause any problems since i already have a WMP?

 

[Martin]

Graham, I would have no problem accepting that WMP comes with Windows AS LONG AS other players (whoever it might be, as long as a lot of people use it) are also accepted, like in a Linux distribution. That means real player, apple quicktime and Joe Smith can all have their players included in the system provided there is a userbase for them.

 

[gray]

I think that's pretty much the one i was talking about, without all the flashy huge blue borders and silver buttons

 

[Martin]

++ [ originally posted by Don Bes ] ++
do i have to just install it? will it cause any problems since i already have a WMP?

No, it's just an executable file, needs no installation and it doesn't bother WMP at all. However you will face a daunting task if you want to fix all your mime associations to open with this player instead.

 

[gray]

Hmm I wonder if there's any kind of batch file association converters around.

Otherwise, you'll have to go to Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types and have a great time manually changing them all. Though changing the associations for avi, mpg and wma should cover a large chunk of the files you need to open

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

++ [ originally posted by Martin ] ++


No, it's just an executable file, needs no installation and it doesn't bother WMP at all. However you will face a daunting task if you want to fix all your mime associations to open with this player instead.

well. all i want is to put them all in a media library and be able to customize the titles and singers names. and also sort them by singers name. is it doable?

 

[Martin]

++ [ originally posted by Graham ] ++
Hmm I wonder if there's any kind of batch file association converters around.

Otherwise, you'll have to go to Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types and have a great time manually changing them all. Though changing the associations for avi, mpg and wma should cover a large chunk of the files you need to open

I wish it were that simple but I've come to realize that it can be much more complicated. Mime types are defined in the registry in a manner I can't really understand (must be some super cool Microsoft technology (tm) ), remapping mime types is harder than it looks. I personally used Total Commander, a file manager that has an option for it which seems to work quite well.

 

[Martin]

++ [ originally posted by Don Bes ] ++
well. all i want is to put them all in a media library and be able to customize the titles and singers names. and also sort them by singers name. is it doable?

The media player is good for video. If you want an audio player, look no further than winamp (v5), has everything you could possibly want.

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

++ [ originally posted by Graham ] ++
Hmm I wonder if there's any kind of batch file association converters around.

Otherwise, you'll have to go to Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types and have a great time manually changing them all. Though changing the associations for avi, mpg and wma should cover a large chunk of the files you need to open

if i am not mistaken. u can just go to "open with" and select the program and check the box where it says open all this type of files with this program

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

++ [ originally posted by Martin ] ++


The media player is good for video. If you want an audio player, look no further than winamp (v5), has everything you could possibly want.

they made a new one? i tried winamp 3 and i didnt like it