The European Union's antitrust commission plans to investigate complaints regarding Microsoft Office, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Thursday. Kroes, who was speaking at the Fordham Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy, did not elaborate on the investigation.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Bull, it would never occur; the commission would cave in because the economic consequences of not giving in would be higher than what would occur if Microsoft simply pulled out of the market.
All Microsoft would have to say is; "so, you don't mind making x thousands people unemployed? I guess your respective governments can make jobs for them, since they're doing such a bloody wonderful job with unemployment rates in the double digits range".
PS: For those wanting to know; I'm from New Zealand (No, that isn't in the Netherlands, you're thinking of Zeeland), I'm a card carrying member of the "We Hate America" club, so I'm hardly being a US fanboy; but there is a difference between a legitimate gripe and a whinefeast put on my Microsofts competitors and their inability to get their shit together.
Just take Real Player and their spyware/adware that they force down peoples throats, coupled with the forced registration, hardly enticements to new users to use their products! and where is this "IBM loves opensource" - so when are we going to see Lotus Smart Suite opensourced and delivered on Linux? Believe me, it would be a bloody improvement over OpenOffice.org and the bloatware that is.
Its like the middle east, if you took out Israel, you'd have all the countries going back to beating the shit out of each other over things that occured 2000 years ago, same situation here, if Microsoft was removed from the situation, you'd go back to a situation where you'd have a fragmented market, whining customers, and poor selection of products.
Edited 2006-09-16 04:44
Member since:2006-02-22
Agreed – MS are not that stupid. It would be great if they were, then we would definitely see, Linux on the desktop possibly even Zeta too (being German). However, the EU has got this wrong, the real problem with MS Office is, it isn't available, for other platforms Linux etc., even the Mac version doesn't have access. How many people – companies would not need Windows if Office could run on other platforms – well me and the company I work for a start.
I know the WINE team is working hard and OOo is OK but....
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2006-09-16
Microsoft could NEVER withdraw from Europe. That would be an unbelievably stupid move, because they would lose their monopoly. If 450 million Europeans were forced to use a Mac or Linux, then tens of thousands of software applications and games for these operating systems would be created or ported from Windows.
Thereafter switching to the Mac or Linux would become a much more viable option for everyone else (Americans, Asians etc.).