[NTLUG:Discuss] EU Experts back antitrust plan against Microsoft

[Steve Baker]

Wayne Dahl wrote:

> "In future Microsoft will be forced to supply two separate versions of
> Windows, one without the media player, to computer manufacturers in
> Europe. Microsoft has said removing its Media Player would damage the
> Windows operating system. "
> 
> Puhleeeze!  Is there ANY application that WOULDN'T "damage the Windows
> operating system." if removed????

The problem is the failure to distinguish between a library component
and a full-blown application.

No doubt they might want to have a chunk of library code to play back
animations and such.  You could see how the windowing system could need
that.  KDE must use an animation library to do similar things.

The problem here is that the *application* is also the library.

So what we see as "you must remove this application" is heard by M$ as
"you must remove the fundamental animation library".

If Linux had to ship without (say) libpng, it would be extremely damaging.
But shipping without (say) mplayer is no big deal.

> This is the same old line they used
> about separating Internet Exploder from the OS a few years ago.

Yes...and it's probably just as easy to uninstall as IE was back then.

> If the
> OS is SO dependent on all these M$ apps, what happens to the OS if the
> apps get corrupted?  Hmmmmm?

Well - yes...but in Windows there is no clear boundary between apps and OS.

In the end, it doesn't matter how hard it is to do this.  The EU have ruled,
and if M$ want to do business in Europe, they'll have to do whatever it takes
to remove the media player.

Personally, I don't quite see what this measure achieves.   Unless the version
of Windows without Media Player is a lot cheaper, why on earth would a computer
vendor want to ship without it?

I don't see anywhere where the EU mandate a cost reduction for that version.

What's *FAR* more important is whether they are mandated to document and open
up the '.wmf' and other file formats.  It sure would be nice if mplayer could
play wmf files.

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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