Comments on: Microsoft faces $7bn fine for violating EU deal http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/ Sat, 25 May 2013 19:14:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: goost http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865434 Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:23:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865434 Opera never sued anyone. Opera, Mozilla, Google and others asked EU competition authorities to investigate Microsoft. And they did.

]]> By: Davehead http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865221 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:18:07 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865221 The issue is the Opera browser sued Microsoft under the EU’s antitrust/antimonopoly laws. The judges have already ruled in Opera’s favor & agreed they were being harmed by Microsoft’s default serving of Explorer. Therefore they forced MS to let the user *choose* their preferred browser, thus restoring an essential component of a free, competitive market.

]]> By: Ram http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865219 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:12:48 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865219 There were other issues, but bundling IE is not anti-competitive, it’s just not “pro-competitive”. Why is it Microsoft’s responsibility to educate consumers about the marketplace?

]]> By: Robert http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865156 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:35:21 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865156 Not to mention that the primary way of obtaining a different browser is with the one you already have. I haven’t seen a disk with a browser in a store in over a decade.

]]> By: AndyB http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865154 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:31:50 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865154 that’s because you’re technically aware, one of computing’s “intelligentsia”. Most people are not as educated as you are and are ignorant of the fact that there are lots of other, better, browsers. These are the people who call the big blue E icon “the internet” rather than Internet Explorer, these are the people who end up with a hundred toolbars and popups on their systems too.

So for MS to have the dominant OS, that comes with IE installed and very prominent by default, means that people will use it to get at facebook without knowing there are better options, and we’d end up with a non-standards compliant mess that we had with IE6.

Besides, there was some issues with how MS used its monopoly to unfairly compete with other software manufacturers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8415902.stm

]]> By: Jack N Fran Farrell http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865101 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:10:18 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865101 Balmer was probably to busy chuckling his way through PR prepared by his old-boy PR team to maintain control of a minor $7B accident. Maybe he could retroactively establish a management system with controls over $B decisions.

]]> By: Eric http://gigaom.com/2012/07/17/microsoft-faces-7bn-fine-for-violating-eu-deal/#comment-865064 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:10:19 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=543408#comment-865064 It was a big mistake by Microsoft not to follow through with the BCS after an agreement was made with regulators. BUT, it is beyond my comprehension that packaging Windows and IE can violate antitrust laws when any consumer can obtain a secondary browser in mere minutes if they choose to do so.

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