MS, EU Agree on Name for Windows Sans Media Player 468
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has agreed with European Union antitrust regulators on a new name for Windows software sold in Europe. Officials at the U.S. software giant said they had accepted the European Union's offer to call the European version of Windows sold without Media Player "Windows XP Home Edition N" - with "N" standing for "not with media player." Microsoft's "XP Professional Edition" will also include the "N" for versions sold without the media player. The prior name for the OS was Windows XP Reduced Media Edition." News.com also mentions the choice.
What about Windows Update... (Score:4, Interesting)
Just ridiculous (Score:1, Interesting)
Anyways... good enough for MS... toss a bone to the courts... after kicking them in the teeth! I wonder if the marketing guy who came up with Reduce Media Edition got a raise?
And this does what exactly? (Score:5, Interesting)
If the EU wanted to do some actual, tangible good, maybe they should have forced Dell or Gateway to offer alternative OS's on their PCs that are sold in EU markets.
How does this benefit the user? (Score:3, Interesting)
don't get it (Score:1, Interesting)
if i buy it (Score:1, Interesting)
bravo eu (Score:2, Interesting)
And the price...? (Score:3, Interesting)
With my crystal ball I'm seeing the future. Hmm... The price of the N editions will be...drum roll...MORE than the non-N versions! It's natural that since they need to remove some stuff from the original, they need to be compensated for this extra work!
And few years down the line Microsoft will claim that since the non-N versions are not selling so good, nobody really wants choice in media players.
Re:And this does what exactly? (Score:3, Interesting)
This particular line in the sand over WMP is worthless.
How many will install WMP... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm willing to bet that 90 + % of all future users of this Windows XP N thing will just go and download the Windows Media Player installer from the MS site anyway.
What is the EU gaining?
But the real question is (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How about (Score:4, Interesting)
Last time I bought a car, it came with a stereo already in it, yet, this wasn't an antitrust or monopoly concern. All of the other car manufacturers also had the opportunity to include some form of music player in their cars, and in fact, most or all of them did so. I recognize that the media player is a great selling point for Windows, and it's hard for the smaller companies and to grab a piece of the market share, but that's the way it works. Kia and Hyundai didn't get into the US car market by forcing Ford and Chevy to sell cars without radios. They did it by targeting a slightly different market group and by underselling the larger competition.
The bottom line is, that in spite of my distaste for Microsoft, I don't see how bundling Windows Media Player with Windows fits into the category of antitrust. If they were after Microsoft for all those nifty contracts they've got with computer manufacturer's to ship computers with Windows pre-installed, I'd understand that. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some shady dealing in getting those contracts, and you can definitely argue that they harm other OS's distributions. I think the EU is addressing their concerns about Microsoft in the wrong way.
Re:What the left hand takes away... (Score:3, Interesting)
A Lie.Grandparent explained its relevance to the article.
software patents would not allow only MS, but any company (and technically individual)
Everyone knows patents don't just work for microsoft. Is this what you call a 'rebuttal'.
The software patent issue is far, far larger and more important than some "M$ versus teh world!"
Who the hell would disagree with that. Certainly not the grandparent who you are supposed to be replying to.
You seem to offer nothing in your +3 interesting post. Author or people who modded this up, please explain what value this post has.
Re:What the left hand takes away... (Score:1, Interesting)
software patents would not allow only MS, but any company (and technically individual) to gain "thousands of monopolies".
What about patents in other areas? If I'm in the business of making, for example, coffee making equipment Should I be forbidden from getting a patent a new new type of brewer, because it'd give me a monopoly on my own idea?
It's kind of funny... (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me see if I get the party line...
1. MS is always bad, convicted monopolist and all that...
2. Apple is always good because they got screwed, so we can even overlook it when they screw end uers or promote limitations of fair use...
3. Linux is always good unless it is Red Hat, the Microsoft of the Linux world...
So if somehow the world shifted and MS was either eliminated, forced to open source or was just so massively reduced in influence what would happen? I'm willing to bet that most of /. would turn it's attention to Apple and they would be the new evil empire. Who comes after that, Red Hat or IBM? Sometimes the zealots around here strike me as being no different than the religious right creeps who flood the FCC with indecency complaints; never happy until everyone agrees with them.
Re:How about (Score:3, Interesting)
Are they going to go to the Internet and download any one of the hundreds of media players for Windows? Nooooo - they'll head back to the store and pickup Microsoft Windows Media Player Toolkit for Home Edition "N". Heck, if they play it right, MS could even bundle some features in this second version that would make even non-N users envious.
Honestly, if the EU thinks this is suitable punishment for the Microsoft monopoly, they obviously don't understand computer software. We need to enforce open standards for data interchange; for example, there should be a common word processing file format that can be accurately read by any wordprocessor.
Call me crazy, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, I consider myself one of the last people who will admit when Microsoft appears in the right, but this time?
MS: "People want our media player built in."
EU: "That makes them less likely to pay more for a 3rd party player."
MS: "Ummm... So?"
EU: "Take it out and offer people a choice."
MS: "Okay, here ya go."
EU: Waitasec, we don't like the word Reduced, it might make people think they've bought an inferior product.
MS: "Well, they have, you made us take out Media Player!"
EU: "We don't like it... Make it sound less like like you've taken something out."
MS: "<Blink> <Blink>... Umm... Okay, how about <rolls a 26-sided die> Windows XP N?"
EU: "Great, we love it, what does it mean?"
MS: "Mean? It doesn't mean... Oh, um... It means N ow-with-50%-more-spleem"
EU: "Okay, start selling it."
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Making them offer a choice, I agree with. Making them actually market that alternate version strikes me as far too fascist (in the very literal sense) for my liking...
Re:Great! (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally I think unbundling is not the way to go, every producer of a 'non-standard' file format should produce either an XML spec of said file format or produce a c version using nothing but the standard library that reads the data into a meaningful data structure.
That would go a very long way towards making applications interoperable. Try opening a DXF file generated by autocad in to Qcad to get my drift, even though autocad is supposedly 'open' because they have some whacky definition available. Not that you'd ever be able to do anything useful with that spec, believe me I've tried.
Better yet, make XML formats *mandatory* for every app sold.
Re:Ahh, bashing based on ignorant guesses... (Score:2, Interesting)